


Midnight

by Dariaday



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: A/B/O, AU, Aliens, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, Medical Conditions, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other tags to be added later, additional tags in summary of Ch. 8, some tag warnings in chapter notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 14:36:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 52,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12706971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dariaday/pseuds/Dariaday
Summary: Aliens left the world’s population at two billion and changed everyone who survived into an Alpha, Beta, or Omega physiology. In Starling City, Tommy Merlyn is hiding a secret that helps keep the demons at bay. Felicity Smoak is brilliant at uncovering secrets, but doesn’t suspect that the billionaire COO of Merlyn Global has anything to hide. Plus, she’s too busy keeping her own secrets. It’s not exactly the world peace the beings imagined would flourish in their wake.When a deadly, supernatural force starts hunting Omegas, Tommy draws on every strength and skill he has to protect the one woman he wants, and Felicity has to find the courage to open her mind up to possibilities she never, ever predicted.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second Arrow fic. I binge watched it all and the fact that they had to kill off Tommy Merlyn is a tragedy! So I am putting him in this fornt and center. Other fandoms have a lot of A/B/O fics. This fandom, not so much. I put my own spin on it. I will be adding other characters and pairings, but I feel like adding them now would give too much away. So if you never read a fic til its finished or til it has all of its pairings and tags, please do not read! Also do not read if the A/B/O trope is not your thing. A quick wiki search will describe the basics and you can decide to read or not read. Thank you! A SPN fan turned Arrow fan.

CHAPTER ONE  
Felicity Smoak wished the conversation could take place in a smoky bar, a dingy nightclub, a crowded coffee shop with no one noticing. The information she had to share was shady as fuck, therefore, the location should be equally as dark. Right? Not a scheduled appointment right after lunch in an office with modern art glass for dividers. Her red Louboutins matched the slash of red in the artsy door panel to the office of Thomas Merlyn, COO of Merlyn Global Group. That’s all she could focus on. Same red. Like blood. Felicity nervously smoothed down her floaty skirt. One gust of wind and she’d be mooning the whole office. Should she have worn jeans? Thick, flannel-lined jeans to hide her scent?

“Felicity Smoak?”

The way the secretary’s nose twitched when she waved Felicity through the door to the heir-apparent’s inner sanctum calmed her down. She didn’t need jeans—the secretary smelled nothing but Beta. Nothing but calm, normal, salt-of-the-earth Beta pheromones, because Felicity Smoak was a genius and had genius friends and everything was going to be totally fine.

“Felicity Smoak? Hi, I’m Tommy Merlyn. What can I do for you today?”

Tommy Merlyn was built like a swimmer—broad shoulders, narrow waist, bespoke suit that showed it all off. He didn’t try to hide his Alpha status. He wore it like a superhero cape, running his father’s company with one hand behind his back, funding free medical clinics in a single bound.

Felicity clasped his hand, and all of a sudden, everything was _not_ totally fine.

Underneath the carefully applied layer of suppressants and the injection Anna Palmer had given her two hours ago, just to be safe, Felicity’s skin began to burn. She bit her lip. Afternoon light pierced through the clear parts of the art glass and seemed to sear her flesh. Which made no sense, none, because she passed by Alphas all the time, male and female—her jogging club had an inordinately insane amount of dominant species—and none of them threatened to undo her. Felicity held her breath and counted back from three, then sat down in the chair he offered and perched on the edge of it in case she had to run.

Okay, so maybe not flannel-lined jeans. But definitely sneakers would have been a good idea.

“I made an appointment,” she said, and then smiled ruefully and shook her head. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She had a speech. The suitable-for-dark-alley speech. This was faltering, this was babbling.

“It’s been moved twice, and I apologize. But you said you had some information on Unidac Industries’ auction, and I couldn’t help but take the bait. We were all surprised when it went belly up, and there were rumors of internal collapse. I appreciate Palmer Tech giving us the head’s up on this one, but I’m surprised your hat isn’t in the ring.” Tommy’s smile was devastating. Started on the corner of his mouth and slid over, showing white teeth and a dimple.

Felicity tried not to scent him but damn, he wore cologne. Not the thick, old man kind, either, but some kind of light, mystical, fairies-weep-and-dance kind that was making her leg bob up and down. Ruthlessly, she locked her knees together. Alphas heightened every sense in an Omega, which was so very clearly not supposed to happen right now. She couldn’t afford to melt in front of this man. Not now. Not when she was so close to freedom.

Tommy tilted his head a little and his nostrils flared, slightly. His lips pressed together for a second, then relaxed into another easy smile. Magazine cover smile. Starling City paparazzi smile.

“I head the Applied Sciences Department of Palmer Tech,” Felicity said, desperate to be done with her speech. “That’s just my day job. At night I…consult? For people who need computer stuff taken care of.”

“I’m guessing you don’t tutor the elderly on how to join Facebook.”

“You guessed right. I’m asking you to keep an open mind…as open as you can considering the sensitive information I have to share with you.”

Felicity mentally facepalmed. She sounded like a bad detective novel, or a cartoon. Yeah, a cartoon with wide eyes and deep cleavage. Not that she had cartoon cleavage. Tasteful art-school-line-drawing cleavage, maybe. Felicity’s eyes followed Tommy’s long, slim fingers as he smoothed down his tie. He bridged them together and rested them on his desk. She imagined a flash of those fingers skimming down her side and she forgot the next part of her speech.

“Go ahead and give it to me straight, Ms. Smoak. Neither one of us have all afternoon.”

“Six months ago, Unidac went bankrupt. Before that? It quietly absorbed Kord Industries’ mismanaged and disorganized weapons tech division. The auction this week is a sham. Someone set it up to herd investors to one location so they could, literally, eliminate the competition and get the weapons intel for themselves.” Felicity sliced a finger across her neck in a terrible approximation of a throat-cutting.

Her mating gland pulsed under her finger. Ruthlessly, she shoved her fingers into her lap.

Tommy was silent for nearly a minute. It took all of Felicity’s self-control not to babble. She didn’t want to be seen as a crazy person, she wanted to be seen for what she was—the only one with the truth.

“Are you saying that Unidac’s CEO deliberately sabotaged the company to get all the major, interested parties in one room for an auction so he could, what, assassinate them? And then make off with money from a pre-arranged highest bidder? That’s a powerful accusation, Miss Smoak.”

Felicity shook her head. “Not the CEO. He’s missing, by the way, along with his secret accounts in the Caymans. That wasn’t me. But I did happen to see the guest list before it went public. Before it went public, your name was not on the list. After it was announced, Merlyn Global Group expressed interest in acquiring Unidac.”

“We’ll bid fair and square, just like everyone else, Miss Smoak,” Tommy said, leaning back in his chair and spreading his arms. Easy. Open. Nothing to hide.

“No, I mean…I mean you were never on the original hit list. Which is going to make you a suspect for murder when the auction happens. Once the FBI manage to find the connections I’ve made, you’ll be questioned. And I don’t think you want to do that.”

“And why don’t you think I should cooperate with an imaginary police investigation?”

“Because your father created the list.”

Tommy leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. All traces of mirth were gone now. “What do you want, Ms. Smoak?”

Felicity pushed a thick file folder across the desk. “That’s every surveillance camera he’s passed in the last six months. Starling City, New York, Toronto, all typical businessman locations. But Corto Maltese? Some remote monastery-looking-place in Nepal? I don’t think your father is who you think he is. Oh, and also, you’re in danger.”

“From the hit man.”

“Yes.”

“That you learned about on the dark web and traced back to my father.”

“Yes. If these satellite shots are anything to go by, I don’t think Unidac’s weapons division should be in his hands. I’m telling you this because from all outward appearances, you’re a good guy. I’m not saying your father is a bad guy—I mean, okay, yes, I am saying exactly that—but the point is, you can talk to him. Find out what’s really going on. The information in this folder proves that Malcolm Merlyn hand-picked the guest list. It also shows him communicating with a sniper known as Deadshot. Deadshot is rumored to be one of Central City’s particle accelerator mistakes, and it’s left him with a perfect record. There’s text and email proof, too.”

“This is…”

“If it’s on the internet, I can find it. I just…I looked for information to find out if you were involved, too, and you’re not. Which is good! I mean, unless you’ve covered your tracks, which would mean you’re better than me, which is impossible. So, that’s good for Starling City. You not being a criminal mastermind. Anyway, this city needs you—needs Merlyn Global Group to stay here and not flee to Ivy Town like all the other lynchpins. So I’m asking you to please, confront your father. Maybe it’s all a mistake. Maybe you’ll get enough proof to take to the police before the auction, because anonymous hacking doesn’t count. I need your help.”

Tommy didn’t open the folder. “I’m not an idiot. My father is a powerful Alpha. Whatever he’s been doing off the books is none of my business and it sure as hell isn’t any of yours.”

Felicity sat, stunned, as Tommy Merlyn knocked the legs out from under her carefully erected plan.

“But…but he planned the demise of a Fortune 500 company to get his hands on its proprietary tech at auction and plans to kill all the other bidders!”

“Says you,” Tommy said coolly. “An Omega too afraid to lose the flimsy Beta shield and take her place in the world. Sure you’re not more afraid for your own employment status than mine? What would Palmer Tech do if they knew one of their top scientists wasn’t the safe, secure Beta she claimed to be?”

“Excuse me?” Felicity said, matching his crisp tone.

“You’re not the only one who knows how to research something, Miss Smoak. I didn’t know why the head of Applied Sciences in a company Merlyn Global has no interest in acquiring would initiate a meeting with me. I thought it was a charity move, until you walked in here and I sensed what you really are. Sorry to disappoint you, but suppressants don’t work on me.”

“That’s not possible. You—”

“Forget my father. He’s not a criminal mastermind, he’s just a businessman, and a lonely but adventurous widower. His world travels are nothing new. Go back to work, Miss Smoak. Find your mate, live happily ever after, and breed a bunch of genius pups.”

“Oh! No, I’m not on suppressants to avoid my mate!” Felicity said, nervously laughing as she relaxed slightly. She should have led with that, but how could she top the whole murderous plot thing? In all her research on Malcolm Merlyn, she never found a hint that his son was in the top 2 percent of Alphas, ones that could scent through any barrier. That was a well-kept secret, but one she should have known before she walked right into his office and accused a family member. Nerves made her babble the rest of her explanation, praying he’d feel compassion and not the urge to throw her out of his office. “I’m doing the most amazing work at Palmer Tech, but being an Omega is stunting my growth. Professionally. Suppressants have terrible side effects, and I can’t stand a lifetime of that, so I’m going in for neurological reassignment.”

Tommy’s blue eyes flashed with fury and again Felicity felt fire lick across her skin. Hot, like a desert wind. Scorching. Her anxiety evaporated. She licked her dry lips, tasted lipstick, and swallowed nothing. She wanted to swallow him down. Wanted to slake her thirst with his mouth, with his skin, with his cock—any part of him he’d let her touch, any part of him he would offer up to soothe the raging inferno that threatened to consume her.

She closed her eyes and held her breath. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Literally—it was biologically impossible for an Alpha to break through her top-of-the-line defenses. A mate could do it, but hers hadn’t shown up, thank G-d. Felicity exhaled raggedly and kept her gaze averted. It killed her not to match Tommy Merlyn glare-for-glare, but she could at least keep herself from offering her neck or kneeling in front of him like some kind of brainless slave. Ugh, her surgery couldn’t come fast enough.

“You want to be free of the biological imperative,” Tommy said. His voice was soft, but every word hit like hail. He ran a trembling hand through his perfectly-coiffed hair, messing up the inky strands.

“Yes.”

“There have been no known cases of prolonged neurological reassignment. The patients always revert.”

“I’m willing to risk it. Palmer Tech’s bio-science department and STARLabs have nearly perfected the process.”

“Look at me,” Tommy said, pushing power into the quiet command.

Felicity gritted her teeth as she obeyed. She didn’t know which was worse—that he made a demand of her, or that when she finally acquiesced, the knot of terror in her stomach loosened, her shoulders relaxed, and the migraine that flirted with her temple ran away. It felt good to put herself in his care. It felt _right._

“I hate you,” Felicity said.

“I don’t fucking care. You will not mutilate yourself.”

Tommy stood up from the desk and Felicity did too, standing up as tall as she could on her heels to show him she wasn’t afraid. The trembling probably wasn’t very convincing. Tommy came around the desk and put his hands on her shoulders, effectively stopping all her anxious thoughts. His hands were firm but gentle, the warmth of his palms seeping through her silk blouse. Before, she was burning up and nothing could put out the fire. When he touched her, she wanted to get closer to the flame. Felicity pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t moan. Tommy’s nostrils flared and his eyelids fluttered almost shut.

“Jesus, Felicity. You don’t come into an Alpha’s den without a shitload of suppressants unless you _want_ to be taken. Did you think you could try and fuck me into believing some ridiculous, slanderous accusation about my father?” Tommy’s voice was calm and logical. Full of the common sense she accused him of not having. Felicity pushed at his chest, but he pressed his fingers into her shoulders and held her fast.

“I’m on a double dose of the strongest suppressants money can buy, plus every masking product known to man, plus, and this kind of thing is the reason I need to be free to _work_ for a living, a scientist friend of mine invented one-of-a-kind suppressant injections to temporarily shut down the Omega-core in my hippocampus. There is no reason, no reason at all, that you should sense me as a victim.”

“Victim.” Tommy spat the word. Felicity winced.

“I’m sorry. Bad choice of words. Case study, then. Burden. Problem. Something you have to deal with when you should be out there, kicking business-world ass and taking names.”

“Caring for Omegas is not a burden, it’s an honor.”

“Feels like a prison sentence.” Felicity bravely spoke the words that would send most Alphas into a tirade about social responsibility and the future of the planet, like her rebellious heart was akin to global freezing.

“I’m sorry it feels like that to you, Felicity.” Tommy’s thumbs started stroking the inner curve of her shoulders, just above her collarbone. He still wasn’t touching bare skin, but her brain was nearly crying for him to do so. She cursed herself for not wearing thicker layers. She knew better than to get so close to an Alpha, especially smart, attractive ones. Not whimpering was a freaking miracle. “I’ll talk to my father.”

“You—you will?” Felicity looked in his eyes again, which was a huge mistake, because how had she never noticed how clear and blue they were? Not even a shred of green or gold. And he didn’t seem mad anymore, like he had been when she mentioned the surgery. Which was totally and one hundred percent her choice.

“You’re an Omega, and you need me. Specifically _me,_ not any other Alpha in this city.”

“Well, technically, yes—I mean, you’re the only other person who could help me prove that the Unidac auction is a sham.”

“It would be an honor to assist you.”

“Okay…” Felicity narrowed her eyes. “You do know you’re agreeing to an endgame where I get to be a Beta like everyone else in my line of work?”

“I’m agreeing to ask my father some questions, whenever he decides to come home again. My personal beliefs about N-R surgery are unchanged.” Tommy smiled. “You were too nervous to eat lunch, right? Come on, let me feed you.”

“No! No feeding me, I know where that leads, and I have a meeting at three. And don’t you dare throw your power around again, I don’t like it.”

“Actually, you liked it a lot.”

“I don’t _want_ it,” Felicity corrected herself. “Okay? Just…just let me do some more computer magic and I’ll call you if I find out anything else.”

“I’ll do some research, too. May I contact you if I have information to share?”

“Um. Okay?”

Tommy dropped his hands off her shoulders and took one step away from her. Felicity fumbled around the chair and managed to get her hand on the door before his scent caught up with her. Gone was the relaxed billionaire, the noble charity worker, the successful businessman. In its place she smelled the victory of the hunter, his satisfaction…his joy. For some reason, Tommy Merlyn thought he’d won. Won what, she didn’t know, but Felicity guessed it had something to do with her. Was Tommy just waiting for someone to call his bluff so he’d have an excuse to start investigating dear old dad? Or was he telling the truth when he said he was content to ignore his dad’s dangerous, illegal mechanics on the other side of the world?

“Thank you for hearing me out. I really do need your help.”

“I know.”

Felicity managed to walk out of his office the same speed she’d entered—unhurried, with bland smiles to secretaries and interns and strangers in the hallway. But when she got into the elevator, pain erupted along her skin like a bad sunburn. It was gone in a flash, but it was enough to make her knees wobble. She slapped a palm against the wall of the elevator and breathed into her shoulder, where the scent of Tommy’s hand lingered.

“What. The hell.”

She fairly ran back to Palmer Tech, where the CEO, Ray Palmer, and his wife and Head of Biological Sciences, Anna, hovered in her office like nervous parents waiting up for their kid to come home from their first date.

Ray was just forty, with two recent strands of gray in his thick, dark hair. He was a relentlessly cheerful Beta who had funded enough student projects at MIT to make him a regular visitor, where he’d met Anna, Felicity’s best friend, and married her the day after graduation. Anna had been a grad student while Felicity powered through her undergrad and masters in five years, and the newlyweds promised Felicity they’d help her control her Omega side-effects while she pursued her education and first years of work. It made sense for the three of them to create Palmer Tech, each of them doing what they did best to make the world a better place. Ray’s innovations in heating and cooling were already slowing the ice-cap freeze, saving thousands of lives and precious ocean resources. Anna, inspired by Felicity’s struggles, was making Palmer Tech a bold leader in genetic research concerning Alpha, Beta or Omega genes. While most fields had an equal representation of type, the sciences tended to be dominated by Betas. Collaborative research, patience, long hours, dedication to craft were best suited to Beta species, and the Palmers were the gold standard.

“He said yes. He’s going to help me find real, legal proof about the Unidac auction.” Felicity finally led with the most important info.

Anna tilted her head. Her dark eyes narrowed in suspicion and she pulled the end of her long, black braid to the front and started playing with the curl of hair under the elastic. “Why do you look like you just ran a marathon?”

“Half marathon,” Ray interjected. “She looks mad, not victorious.”

“He triggered…heat.” Felicity opened the door to her private bathroom and ran the cold faucet. She put her wrists under the water but it didn’t help.

“Omega heat? Or are you saying you were attracted to him because he’s a nice, normal, handsome Alpha who doesn’t need your money or stable reputation to get ahead?” Ray uttered a soft “ow” as his wife elbowed him in the ribs.

“Omega heat,” Felicity muttered. Anna, who had followed her into the bathroom, shut off the faucet.

“That’s impossible. All the precautions we took…this morning’s extra injection…Felicity, are you sure you weren’t just having a panic attack? Tommy Merlyn is literally your only chance. Maybe it was just nerves?”

“Nerves don’t make me…” Felicity’s gaze flicked to Ray, who stood in the doorway with a concerned look on his face. She knew he would move heaven and earth to help her, but she didn’t need his big brain talking about her intimate details.

“Out,” Anna said without looking over her shoulder. “Girl stuff.”

“Fine, but as soon as you’re done stabilizing Felicity, I need you to sign off on the third quarter financials.”

“Very romantic.” Anna shot Ray a smile, his eyes twinkled in response, and then he tapped the doorway with a closed fist.

“Glad Merlyn’s going to help you get this done, Lis. Don’t worry about anything, Anna’s the best.”

“I know. Thanks, Ray.”

Felicity felt like a child watching him go and making sure he was halfway down the hallway before she backed into the bathroom again and unbuttoned her shirt. “Nectar, Anna,” she said in a disgusted voice.

“Completely for no reason.” She pulled one cup of her bra down and showed her friend the wet spot on the inside. “Look at this. I can’t even Omega right.”

“First of all, it’s not a verb. Second of all, there’s no right or wrong. I have no idea why your breasts are producing Alpha-bonding serum without the presence of your mate, but we’ll figure it out. Is that all there is? Just those few drops?”

“Yes.” Felicity fixed her clothing. “I want a full lab workup.”

Anna put her arm around her. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

Hours later, full of synthetic Omega-soothing hormones, Felicity floated in a peaceful haze. She was wrapped in warm blankets, headphones cancelling all ambient noise, with the lights dimmed and Anna tapping on her keyless letterboard on the wall. The labs confirmed what Anna had said before and what Felicity knew to be true—there was no way Tommy Merlyn or any other Alpha, even in the top two percent of sensitives, should have sensed she was anything other than a Beta, much less broke through her defenses and triggered such a physical and emotional reaction from her. It was a fluke. And she was the queen of flukes, was she not? Felicity snuggled into the warmth and recalled Tommy’s blue eyes. Such a quick range of emotions he carried there. Safe in Anna’s private lab, he didn’t seem so scary. Didn’t seem like such a threat to her plans.

Anna mimed taking the headphones off and Felicity complied, stretching comfortably.

“I don’t want to freak out on you like this every day, but I have to admit, this is the most comfortable I’ve felt in weeks. Is this what Betas feel every day, not riding the rollercoaster? I can’t wait.”

Anna sat down in a chair next to the exam bed and smoothed Felicity’s hair off her forehead. “Honey, I have a lot of results to give you. Do you want me to get Ray? I know he’s better at translating numbers into meaningful words.”

Felicity felt a small stirring of alarm. She sat up in the bed. “No, just give it to me straight.”

_Give it to me straight._ That’s what Tommy had asked from her, earlier.

Anna sighed. “Felicity, there’s only one reason Thomas Merlyn could have drawn such a powerful reaction from you, and I do mean powerful. I’ve never seen your levels so high. He’s your mate, Felicity.”

“That’s impossible. He didn’t touch my skin. I’ve never even met him before today. It’s just like he said, he’s a top sensitive and bypasses the protocols we set up today.”

Anna crossed her arms. “Felicity, given your family history—”

“Anna! We don’t talk about it! It’s wrong, it’s broken, and I’m going to fix it! I’m going to fix everything!”

“Felicity, I’m sorry. For years I have done everything I could, researched everything, tried every other possibility except this one.”

“Because I don’t want it!” Felicity ripped off the blankets and shoved her feet into her shoes. Wouldn’t be the first time she came to work in couture and left in med scrubs and heels. “My genetics are perverse, Anna, and you know it.”

“I don’t agree. Plenty of other people with that condition make it work.” Anna’s voice was cool, tinged with hurt. Felicity didn’t care. How could her friend do this to her, betray her like this?

“This is why I want the surgery, don’t you get it? I have the chance to be normal, just like everyone else, and I’m going to take it. I have to take it.”

“Felicity, no lab in the world is going to perform your surgery. I blacklisted you on the register.”

Felicity froze. Her best friend looked like a stranger. No, she looked like a doctor, a doctor who had just handed down a death sentence to her patient. “What?”

“You’re smart. You’ve got friends who care about you and an entire Applied Sciences department who knows if you’re late coming back from lunch, much less don’t come in at all. Do you know that Ray had to go down there and personally reassure everyone that you were with me getting lab work done so they wouldn’t all riot and come looking for you? You’re not going to end up like your mother. I promise. I promise you, Felicity.”

Felicity let Anna take both her hands and squeeze. She could hardly feel anything anymore. Hope died.

“Whatever happened today escalated your levels to unsafe parameters for surgery. You wouldn’t even be a candidate unless he repudiates you, and the odds of that are slim to none. Alphas don’t do that. It goes against everything they are. Ray and I were willing to go along with your plan because we know how miserable you are, but Felicity… Tommy Merlyn would never reject you. Hell, the reason Merlyn started the free clinic in the Glades was to help homeless Omegas. You’re just going to have to accept it.”

“No.”

“Felicity, please…”

“No. I need…I just need to go home.”

“I’m sorry, I really am. You know I’ve tried everything. I made a career out of trying everything for you, because you’re my best friend and I love you. You can fight it all you want but eventually, the pain of not being mated will be so great you won’t be able to work. You’ll be drawn to him the way you were drawn to this city. We wanted to install Palmer Tech in Hub City, remember? You begged us to come here and couldn’t ever tell us why, but you know why—this is where he lives.”

“Stop.” Felicity backed towards the door. She shook her head. “Anna. No more.”

“Okay. Fine. But I’m done pretending, for both our sakes.” Anna’s eyes filled with tears.

Felicity didn’t know how she got home. Her head buzzed until she was under her own covers with her electric blanket on high, warming her bones. It wasn’t as peaceful as Anna’s lab, but Felicity didn’t want to be in a lab. She wanted to be on a beach somewhere, one of the equator beaches that still had palm trees, with a drink in one hand and a wifi tablet in the other and absolutely no hormones directing her biology away from her work.

She cried into her pillow until she fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, just a friendly reminder that if A/B/O Dynamics and stories are not your thing, please do not read! 
> 
> I have stolen all kinds of canon happenings and mushed them together for this story. And my fan casting for Anna Palmer is Nicole Beharie (of Sleepy Hollow fame)

Tommy was waiting for his father when he got back from Nanda Parbat.

“How’s the Demon’s Head?” Tommy asked without preamble. Malcolm Merlyn’s surprise didn’t register on his face, but the man they called “The Magician” was used to masks and subterfuge.

“Welcome Home, Dad,” Malcolm corrected his son coldly. He crossed to the sideboard in the living room and poured himself a glass of scotch with fresh ice. “He’s not happy. No argument will sway his resolve to bring the League into the technological age, and Nyssa refuses to play nice.”

Tommy sighed. “Trying to bribe Ra’s al Ghul with a bunch of tech he can’t understand is not going to make you the favored son. Ever.”

“He gave me peace when I had none, and a mission to uphold. A code of honor. I want to help him by making sure the League is always in existence.” On the couch, Tommy groaned and slumped further into the cushions of the couch. Malcolm kept his eyes on Tommy as he sipped his drink. “I negotiated with Ra’s to receive additional instruction, but he will not tell me all the secrets of the League until I am chosen as Warith al Ghul, heir to the Demon.”

“Nyssa must have been so happy.”

“She’s posturing. She wants the responsibility, the praise, but not the power. For that, Ra’s will never pick her to succeed him. How is Merlyn Global?” Malcolm joined Tommy on the couch.

Tommy fought very hard not to inch away from the monster sitting next to him. He owed his father for keeping him far away from his dealings with the League, but teaching him how to defend himself. He would always be thankful, in some twisted way, for having been made into his father’s image of a warrior, since now it meant there was one more precious soul that was his to protect. _Felicity._ But Malcolm Merlyn always had something up his sleeve, and Tommy couldn’t completely shut the door on his father until he knew what was keeping his father up late at night, talking in foreign tongues, taking meetings all over the globe that had nothing to do with their company. Hiring a sniper? Fixing a major business auction? Felicity Smoak had done more than upend his future, she’d shaken his tenuous belief that his father was on the noble side of crazy.

“Third quarter financials are up a half-point. The work you did in the EU last year is paying off.” Tommy couldn’t pretend that his father wasn’t a good negotiator—the math proved it. But he held back from true praise, because Merlyn always managed to twist his words back at him, and Tommy needed every last brain cell to be sharp, sharp, sharp as a knife. If his father got _any_ hint that Tommy had met his mate, any hint at all, there was nothing he could do to stop the onslaught of Malcolm Merlyn’s idea of celebration.

They talked about the Global Group for the better part of an hour, and then Tommy left the mansion with a tablet full of notes. He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as his Maserati left the winding drive, but didn’t fully relax until the penthouse loft door was closed and locked behind him and the bug-sweeping device turned green. He’d learned the hard way that Malcolm didn’t like being out of the loop. He sifted through the notes he’d taken, putting them into action items for the next day, then brought his tablet to bed with him and googled Felicity Smoak like a boy with a crush.

She was the dream he never let himself believe in. When he was a boy, before he presented as an Alpha, before he knew what mating meant, he dreamed of being mated to his best friend, Oliver Queen. Once he was older, even after Oliver presented as an Alpha too, Tommy still held out hope that maybe they’d find mates who would be sisters, or best friends—anything to keep the two of them connected by something more than childhood memories. 

But then Oliver died, and the dreams died up. 

Until Felicity.

Of course he had to keep her name a secret from Malcolm, like a present he couldn’t unwrap yet. Happiness didn’t exist, his father said.

“Her name is Felicity,” Tommy murmured out loud. “Her name is Felicity Smoak, and she hates me.”

She was clearly his mate, no doubt about it. Science could mask her Omega scent to the world easy enough, but nothing could make her mate think she was anything less than who she really was. He had barely realized their connection when she got agitated and he’d calmed her with a word, a touch, a steady voice that promised safety and security. Tommy let out a ragged breath. He wanted her. He was used to indulging his desire with willing women, Omegas and Betas and occasionally, when he was really feeling bad about himself, other Alphas. He had no idea what it felt like to have his blood heat towards a woman who was designed for him. Felicity smelled like sunlight—fuck the critics, that’s exactly what it was—and every inch of him craved to draw her into his arms and never let her go. And she wasn’t even in heat. Wherever she was in her cycle, if she even had a cycle on the circus-animal-level suppressants she claimed to be taking, she wasn’t overcome by the mating urge. Tommy closed his eyes and imagined what it would be like if Felicity was trembling with desire in front of him, her skin flushed with arousal instead of indignation. No wonder mated Alphas spouted fucking poetry and stayed stone-cold sober. 

After a couple of hours of skimming through public record, Tommy had a better understanding of why Felicity hated her lot in life. Being an Omega in a Beta-rich career field must be a constant struggle. Scientists were the world’s first line of defense after the alien meteor shocked Earth into its new normal, with three types of biological imperative and a new way of populating the earth. Most of the news focused on agriculture and medicine, but Ray Palmer’s work with nanotech had saved the entire northern hemisphere from becoming a frozen ice cube for the next million years, so Tommy could see the appeal for someone as smart as Felicity to work with Palmer Tech. So he didn’t blame her and he understood why she had to try and beat fate.

He just wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Felicity was so good at hiding her Omega status that no one even knew. She hadn’t registered with any of the safehouses in Starling City who would assign her a safe and anonymous Alpha to help her through a heat cycle, and she wasn’t on the national registry, either. Anna Palmer was her best friend, which meant that all the genetic work Dr. Palmer was known for directly benefitted Felicity. The special suppressants, the timed release effects, that was all proprietary Palmer Tech stuff. Felicity’s specialty was Applied Sciences, with a focus in cyber-engineering. Everything online about her was work-related, which made sense—a computer genius wasn’t going to let personal information exist, especially if she had something to hide. But knowing everything about Felicity and knowing Felicity were two very different things. She’d uncovered some kind of chaos with the upcoming Unidac auction—Tommy had no doubt Malcolm was involved, though he doubted it was going to turn into a killing spree—and rifled through the Merlyn closet skeletons with ease.

But she had not uncovered Tommy’s secret. 

Tommy stretched out on the couch. Somehow the world population was stable at 2 billion souls, and no matter how many births there were in the world, the makeup was still the same: eighty percent Beta, ten percent Alpha, ten percent Omega. Betas created the world. Alphas ran it. Omegas…Omegas could do anything they wanted, but Tommy had to concede that most of them were content to be close to their mates, working with them—co-leading countries, for the most part—or involved in helping the poor, trekking through the wilderness and setting up A-O sanctuaries, consulting with Betas world-wide in charge of agriculture, that sort of thing. Only Omegas were blessed with the Sight, prophesying things that saved humanity again and again. Their delicate body systems, their need to be with an Alpha, belied a rock-solid psychic ability. Protecting the rare and valuable Omegas was a priority in every culture, in every country. 

“Why would anyone _not_ want to be mated?” Tommy asked his empty penthouse loft. The balance the aliens had given to humans had stabilized and was working a hundred years after the initial contact. Sure, there were always criminals, but sanctioned police forces and groups like the League took care of evil men and evil deeds. Tommy didn’t like their hubris, but he couldn’t deny the world was a better place when it focused on preserving humanity instead of destroying it. 

He was doing his part.

Felicity Smoak deserved to be the person she was created to be, not some shell of an Omega inside a new Beta skin. Her brain would never be the same after neurological reassignment, anyway. That was only meant for the elderly, or people who’d lost their life-long mates and were in agony. 

That was his angle. Her brain, her ideas, her bucket list or whatever else she planned to do with her brilliance; it would never be the same if she let them carve her up like a Halloween pumpkin. He wouldn’t force her, but that wasn’t even on the table. Tommy closed his eyes. Biology would force her hand before he ever had to issue an Alpha command to her. He hoped she let him pick up the pieces.

That’s what he was born to do: Protect his city, and the people in it. Like his mate.

###

When he awoke in the morning, Tommy drove to Palmer Tech instead of his own office. The gleaming glass and concrete complex sprawled over two city blocks, with solar shingles and wind tech powering each building. Tommy registered for a visitor’s pass and joined the first tour group. When the tour was over, he returned to the Biological Sciences building and asked to make an appointment to see Dr. Anna Palmer. To his surprise, he was immediately shown to a small but comfortable office with a view of the park. Rain obscured most of the winter landscaping, as usual, but Tommy traced the running paths with his eyes. He knew those trails. They always smelled good. Maybe Felicity liked to run, and that’s why he felt drawn to those paths. Tommy laughed at himself. Was everything going to be about her, now?

“Mr. Merlyn, I’m Dr. Anna Palmer.”

Tommy shook the hand of the beautiful woman in a white lab coat. He asked her to call him Tommy, she said he could call her Anna, and then they stood there. Staring at each other. Like idiots.

Anna sighed and flung a hand into the air, like she’d had enough. 

He knew the feeling. 

“We both know why you’re here, but Felicity is my best friend. I can answer some of your questions, but not all of them. You’ll have to ask her.”

“I don’t think she’ll talk to me unless it’s about her…exciting night job. How long has she been a hacker?”

“Redacted. You need to try to talk to her. About her skill with computers, about the Unidac auction, anything. Otherwise, you’ll be a stranger to her when she hits her first heat cycle.”

“Her… _first_ …heat cycle?”

Anna swiveled in her chair, her bright red chucks barely skimming the ground. “Felicity was not of age when I met her. Until that point, I don’t even know if she fully understood she was an Omega. She didn’t act any differently than any of the other Betas at MIT. When she did present, it wasn’t a true heat, just a minor hormonal event, which is not uncommon for an Omega surrounded by Betas instead of Alphas. She started taking suppressants and has never gone off them. She’s never even had anything breach them until yesterday, when she met you in person. She’s been planning the visit for months, going over her plea, deciding the best way to beg you to help her find proof about the auction. Did you do anything to establish a mating connection with her? Did you touch bare skin?”

“What? No! She point blank told me her endgame was neurological reassignment. I’m not a complete dick. How old was she when you met her?”

“Sixteen. Emancipated minor, so she could attend college.”

“Jesus.”

“She acted like an adult one hundred percent of the time. She’s brilliant, and we all forgot how young she was. Until she came to me, crying, begging for a cure.”

“Okay.” Tommy ran his hands through his hair. “Where is she at, medically speaking?”

“I was able to stabilize her after your encounter yesterday, but the damage has been done. Suppressants have peaked with her. The side effects are almost debilitating, and yet she still comes to work every day and pushes through them. Migraines, tremors, auditory hallucinations, visual cortex spasms, nothing can stop her from leading Applied Sciences. If she had an Alpha to go home to, she’d be herself again. Genius Felicity, no more pain. I trust you’re not one of those so-called “purist” Alphas who demand their Omegas be basically caged?”

“Hell, no. If Felicity wants to run the whole damn country I’ll pack her a lunch every day. Whatever she needs.”

“She probably will need a lunch, she’s a horrible cook. Anyway, I expect she’ll keep taking the suppressants, but they’re not going to work now that she’s found you, and she’s going to be pissed. At me, at you, but mostly at herself. Her dreams crashed and burned yesterday. She can’t lie to herself anymore, which is going to affect how the medicine blocks her Omega core. You need to be there to catch her.”

“You think she’s going to drop?”

“Felicity never does anything the easy way. She’ll work til her whole nervous system is shot. Zero to extreme pain in about a second, if you don’t intervene in time.”

“Aren’t you worried she’ll have a cardiac event? At my mother’s clinic, they put drop-risk Omegas on observation overnight, with available Alphas on call.” 

“I hate that we’re even having this discussion, you know that, right?” Anna smiled ruefully. “I’ve been looking at Felicity’s lab work for ten years. Yesterday was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, which, combined with you showing up here, is enough proof that you’re her mate and I can tell you all of this information, but she’s still going to be mad. I wish you could just go order her to stay with you forever.”

“That’s not what she needs. I want to give her what she needs. Always.”

“It’s completely maddening. Because what she needs is to go to your bed and never leave. She’s managed to lead a pretty good life so far, and that’s _with_ the fear dogging her steps. Don’t underestimate her.”

“I’ll try. This is all just…totally new to me. Unexpected. But not unwelcome.” Tommy rubbed the back of his neck. “I just don’t want her first sexual experience to be because she’ll stroke out otherwise.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Anna smirked at him and Tommy actually blushed. “Listen, start with an email. Thank her for putting herself out there. Sometimes text is easier to handle than face-to-face conversations, especially with A-O pairings. And remember, she doesn’t want you. She wants your help.”

Tommy thanked Anna profusely and left, texting a quick note to Felicity in the hallway. It only seemed fair to let her know he’d interviewed Anna. She didn’t reply, but she didn’t block him. He’d take it. 

But figuring out how to ease her into a relationship wouldn’t be as easy as a text. Somehow fate seemed to bring people together on a very regular basis all over the world. Most Alphas, upon meeting their mate, would gradually sync up with wherever the Omega was in their cycle—heat, post-heat, pre-heat, whatever—and a connection would be made. Physical intimacy eased the new couple into the relationship and helped them bond. Tommy had seen it several times, but never experienced it. He’d always envisioned himself taking his Omega out on dates, introducing him or her to friends, getting to know their hobbies and preferences and sense of humor as their systems adjusted accordingly. By the time a heat cycle rolled around, Tommy hoped they’d be ready for sex. 

Felicity, hopped up on a cocktail of suppressants, probably wouldn’t follow Tommy’s fantasy schedule. She’d probably drop at work. There was no way he could hide that from Malcolm. The alternative wasn’t much better—what if she fell hard while he was…otherwise occupied? No, he’d push hard for the hand-holding and dinner-in-public-places, hoping that she’d admit he was her mate before her hormones forced her into it. Then, after he’d proved himself, he could tell her everything.

And hope she believed the truth.  
###

Even if he hadn’t sent a text, Felicity knew Tommy Merlyn had visited Palmer Tech because she smelled him when she came in to work. Smelled his scent, like some sort of…well, okay, like some sort of Omega. Which she was. The frustration sent her straight to Anna’s lab, but her team was in the middle of new chemical trials. Felicity sighed. It was hard to yell at your best friend when you had to stop and put on a sterile suit first. Also, it probably wasn’t professional. So she backed away and buried herself in Applied Sciences until they all met for lunch in the cafeteria. It boosted morale in the company to see the owners dining with everyone else. But today, Felicity picked a “reserved” table to ensure they wouldn’t be interrupted, and started the conversation by glaring at Anna until she cracked.

“He came to me, I didn’t invite him. He’s your mate, Felicity.”

“Tommy Merlyn,” Ray mused.

“Stop fantasizing about a merger,” Felicity said, glaring at him, unscrewing a bottle of water with such vigor it sloshed over her hand. “I can smell that too.”

Ray held up his hands. “Occupational hazard.”

“Ooh, Merlyn Global’s division in Europe, though,” Anna said. She looked at Ray. “The genetic mutation lab with the anti-disease aspect?”

“Oh, wow. Wow, yeah, I bet they’d…”

“Focus!” Felicity snapped. “You’ve been aiding and abetting me for ten years and now you want to cash in on my misfortune like a bunch of paparazzi?!”

“Misfortune?” Anna laughed. “Felicity, I had no idea about Tommy Merlyn. I would never persist against your matched Alpha.”

“ _Alleged_ Alpha,” Felicity said, slouching in her chair.

“Besides it being illegal and against the physician’s creed, it’s also just plain cruel. I’m relieved, to be honest. Now you don’t have to suffer the horrible side effects of the designer suppressants. Tommy says he supports you working here. It’s a win-win.”

“I don’t want him!” Felicity said. Ray tilted his head, the way he did when he heard a lie. Felicity slumped even further in her chair. “I don’t _want_ to want him.”

“Is he a criminal? Abusive?” Ray asked. “There are legal steps to take if an Alpha is out of line with his Omega. Do we need to take those steps? I can call the Squadron right now,” he said, taking out his phone.

“No,” Felicity said, sullenly. “He’s normal and handsome and perfect. It’s my worst nightmare.”

“Your worst nightmare is that you almost dropped when you merely _saw_ him for the first time, Felicity, and you’re at the max level of drugs Anna can give you. You NEED your Alpha,” Ray said. “Tommy Merlyn is willing. Stop fighting it.”

“You’ve been thinking of yourself as a Beta, and I take partial responsibility for that,” Anna added a little more gently. “Beta-scented products mask your dynamic from the world, you mimic Beta behavior because you’re surrounded by it all day, and you haven’t had a heat. You don’t know how to be an Omega, but the truth is, that’s who you are. You think it’s going to impede your progress here, but you don’t know how good it can be. Your Alpha grounds you, you stabilize him, and then you’re off to the races. I know Omegas are frowned upon in the sciences, but it’s not illegal for you to work here. You have our full support.”

“Is it just that you’re afraid of not being in control?” Ray asked. 

“No,” Felicity said. She didn’t elaborate. The truth was, she liked her chosen field because science was always in control. Data didn’t lie. Experiments could be repeated. In the lab, science was in charge, she just held the reins. In her personal life, she hated being in charge. It wasn’t that she was indecisive or weak, she just didn’t care. The thought that finally, for the first time in her life, she’d CARE about something, about someone, was overwhelming. 

“Are you afraid you’ll fail?” Anna guessed. “Because there’s no right or wrong way to be an Omega, and Tommy will tell you what he needs. Every Alpha is different.”

“I don’t know much about him,” Felicity said. “He’s charming on the social scene but as a Merlyn Global exec, he’s all business. Like the social whirl is a façade and running the company is his first priority. Or maybe he’s just really good at compartmentalizing. I don’t know. And his father’s an evil murderer, I think. How do I even…?”

“You’ll have to talk to him. And I think you should stop taking your suppressants. They’re not working against him anyway. We learned that yesterday.”

“I’ll think about it,” Felicity said. “Now, onto more important matters.” She ignored Ray and Anna’s exchanged glance. “Curtis Holt is working on a backlight flare for sunspots in the Artic, but they need to be hover-compatible. Ray, are your exo-drones up for it?”

Felicity left lunch convinced that Tommy Merlyn was going to ruin her life. Ray and Anna talked like the mate union was a done deal, and she hadn’t even spoken to the man more than once. She walked home looking over her shoulder, like the Alpha Council was waiting to pounce on her and demand to know why they hadn’t registered the match yet. 

But when she opened her phone and saw his text, an unfamiliar sense of peace almost pushed her over the edge. _He came to ask about me,_ she thought. Quickly, the thought came that he should have just called and asked _her_ for her personal history, not pried it out of Anna. But somehow, magically, there was a prickle of awareness in her mind. Like waking up from a dream and recognizing the real world. Somehow, she _knew_ that Tommy had only wanted to approach Anna in a formal capacity, seeking information from the doctor in charge of Felicity’s treatment as how to best care for his Omega. Felicity scowled. She’d finally had an Omega “prophecy” and it wasn’t news of a famine or a virus or weather event, it was just certainty about Tommy Merlyn’s stupid nobility. 

Yep. Life as she knew it was definitely over.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will eventually get an E rating. This chapter is T. Thanks!

Felicity expected a formal request from the town’s Alpha Council. She expected a press release announcing that Thomas Merlyn of Merlyn Global Group, son of Malcolm Merlyn and the late Rebecca Tate Merlyn had found his mate. She expected more than a text offering to talk whenever she wanted, and then radio silence. Because she didn’t have additional information on the Unidac sale, she didn’t reply to Tommy’s text. It was denial, but she had a full work schedule without adding an Alpha into the mix. If Tommy wasn’t going to mention his field trip to Palmer Tech and his conversation with Anna—who was sorrynotsorry about it—then Felicity wasn’t going to bring it up. Applied Sciences was working on a hundred things at once, literally, and a dozen of them were approaching development stage. Alien tech alongside the best human minds on the planet was allowing them to thrive in a colder world, but Felicity was determined to bring the planet a little closer to how it was when the population was seven billion people scattered in every latitude. So, she didn’t have time to flirt with her supposed-mate over a texting platform. It had nothing to do with the fact that the device would also automatically send Tommy her vitals and brain imagery, preventing her from bluffing her way out of a relationship with him. Nothing at all. 

So she was a little flustered to see him at the scene of a restaurant fire, soot smearing his cheek. 

She huddled with Ray and Anna in the medium-sized crowd of people who’d been dining inside Table Salt when the blast had occurred. A single rocket launched through the picture window had taken out Harry Tobol, a local businessman rumored to be running illegal weapons—and other things—through Starling City. His table of cronies had survived, but he was dead, and Felicity was just glad she’d been in the ladies’ room when it happened. Everyone who’d been cleared by the EMTs and given their statement to the authorities lingered in a shocked clump, unable to make decisions. Go home? Stay until an announcement cleared them? Stay and watch the firemen work their magic? Starling City had its fair share of crime, but it didn’t usually involve rocket launchers inside a popular watering hole. So people lingered and gossiped and wondered how close the crime really was to their backyards.

Ray chattered about a new heat exchange idea for a velocity problem he was having for an army contract at work until Anna shushed him; the brilliant Beta couldn’t shut down his imagination, even though it was tacky in the face of a tragedy. Felicity ignored him. Watching Tommy took all her focus. He didn’t have any problem deciding what to do. She didn’t know he’d been in the restaurant with them. Not _with them,_ obviously, but occupying the same building. Was he stalking her? Or had he really just been passing by and stopped to help? Why would he do that? Maybe it was just a coincidence, and he was coming for a late reservation. 

Tommy’s body angled toward hers even as he spoke quietly with the Squadron Chief. He wore a long, wool coat that almost brushed the floor, the collar turned up to protect his neck from the cold. A scarf covered his throat, blocking his scent glands, for which Felicity was very glad. Black leather gloves covered his hands, but from her angle they didn’t look fashionable, they looked like motorcycle gloves or something industrial. Did he ride a motorcycle? In this weather? Felicity looked at the Squadron Chief’s hands to see if he, too, had specialty gloves, but the man was bare-handed. The Chief was gesturing to the building, talking with his hands, making swooping motions and cutting the air at angles, clearly telling Tommy how it had happened. Why would Tommy Merlyn need a ballistics report? Felicity took an instinctive step towards that mystery and stopped. Just one step closer to him and Tommy’s nostrils flared and a muscle in his jaw twitched as he ground his teeth together. Felicity stepped back, knowing she’d somehow agitated him. Was that normal? Was that a thing that happened to Alphas when an Omega got too close? Or was it because they really were, as the stories claimed, connected? Felicity was starting to really hate Anna Palmer’s science. She’d keep her own nice, neat computer science and the alien tech that enhanced it and Anna could take all her advanced genetics and shove—

“Felicity?”

“Mmm?” Felicity turned her back on Tommy’s steady, solid presence and answered the friend she’d just been excoriating in her mind. 

Anna hooked her arm through Felicity’s and nodded toward Tommy. “Just stay here with us, in the crowd, where there’s safety in numbers. He needs to know you’re safe.”

“I took one step, Anna. One step away from you and I think he almost yelled at the Squadron Chief to shut up so he could come over here and lecture me. That’s not exactly endearing me to the whole “oh yeah, go ahead and embrace being an Omega” argument.”

“You haven’t bonded yet,” Anna said matter-of-factly. “He’s a little edgy. Take it easy on him, because he’s following your lead. Don’t make it harder.”

“Seriously? I was having dinner with friends and a mob boss got toasted. That’s not even about me, much less this…whatever this is.”

“I’m just asking you to consider someone else’s biology for a change.” Anna’s voice, usually so calm and steady, had a bite to it.

Felicity pulled her arm away. Anna turned her attention to Ray and steered the conversation away from science and towards finding their valeted cars and going home. Anna’s words hurt, but the dread that swamped Felicity wasn’t about the fact that she was probably right. The dread was because she’d been at odds with her best friend all week, since Anna had taken her off the register for neurological reassignment, and they were building up to a huge fight. Felicity didn’t want to have a huge fight. She wanted to go back to the way things were before she ever stepped in Tommy’s office. She wanted her Beta-scented life back. She’d gladly suffer a week-long reaction migraine if it meant she wasn’t fighting with Anna, being annoyed with Ray, and not getting any sleep for the constant thoughts of a man she didn’t know invading her dreams. 

Then a loud, feminine voice broke through the quiet murmurs of the crowd. Felicity looked at the entrance to the restaurant, where a young woman stood on a large flower planter and clung to the one pillar that was still standing. She had a red knit cap over dark hair that curled at her chin in a bob, and underneath a belted duster, the hem of a floaty red dress and strappy silver heels shone in the floodlights. 

“I’m Thea Queen, owner of Verdant,” the young woman proclaimed. “Everyone is invited to get the takeout of your choice and meet me at my club in twenty minutes, where we’ll all eat potluck style. I know it’s not exactly the atmosphere any of us planned on a Sunday night, but look at us—all dressed up with nowhere to go! Tonight’s bar tab will be donated to the Sanchez family, to help them out while they rebuild Table Salt, and I’ll match the amount. Sound like fun?”

Felicity found herself clapping along with everyone else. To her surprise, Tommy was the one to go over to the planter and help Thea down from the makeshift podium. He whispered something in her ear and she smiled, making her look far too young to be the owner of a nightclub. Her eyes sparkled and she clapped her hands together, then flounced over to the group of emergency personnel to invite them, too.

“Let’s go,” Felicity said impulsively to Anna and Ray.

“I was going to order chicken parm anyway,” Ray said, “we could swing by Giovanni’s so there’s at least something on the table that isn’t Big Belly Burger.” 

Anna laughed and kissed him on the cheek and Felicity felt their inevitable fight simmer back down again. 

Ray was wrong, though—the long tables hastily covered with dark green linen had way more than heavy burgers and fries. Nearly every takeaway place in Starling City was represented, including BBB and Giovanni’s but also a tray of crepes from a new food truck Felicity had never even heard of. She demolished two sweet and two savory ones and was contemplating the etiquette ramifications of going back for seconds when Thea Queen plopped down beside her on the plush velvet couch and draped her long, slender arm over the back.

“Thank you for coming,” the hostess said. “Are you having fun?”  
Felicity grinned and held up her empty plate. “There’s way more people in here than the crowd at Table Salt.” The dance floor was packed, but the music was more fine-dining than heavy with bass. The balcony and VIP areas were dark and roped off, making the main dance floor seem happy and loud and packed. The lights above the bar made the copper accents flash, and Felicity noticed the natural green patina starting to appear here and there. Everything was gold and copper and green, like a forest, with heavy industrial pipe shoring up the structure. 

Thea shrugged. “I might have sent out a discreet announcement to some regulars. The club is closed on Sundays but I wanted a big bar tab. Mandy Sanchez is a good friend. The insurance will cover the building, obviously, but they’ll be out a ton of personal cash flow during repairs. Are you doing your part?”

“Seriously good cabernet,” Felicity praised, holding up an empty glass.

“You like red wine?”

“All wine,” Felicity said. Thea smiled and kicked her heels off, tucking her legs underneath her. 

“I’m Thea,” she said. “You’re Felicity Smoak, right? I caught your speech on sunspot harvesting at the last Starling City Tech day.”

“Yes. Nice to meet you. Thanks again for doing this.”

“My pleasure. Stupid mob boss got what was coming to him, I guess, but no one thinks about the aftermath. So, why is my brother trying not to stare at you like you’re some kind of Omega?”

Felicity looked around for a tall, thin, auburn-haired man, but didn’t see anyone that looked like Thea Queen hovering around. She pasted the happy smile of a Beta on her face and mentally crossed her fingers.

“I don’t know, but I’m sorry your brother’s got a thing for blonde science nerds who don’t date much.”

“Oh, he’s not really my brother. He just stepped into the role when my brother died, and I have to say, it’s almost better than the real thing. I’ve just never seen him so…flustered. He’s usually working the room with me, shaking more hands than a president, then slinking away to process it all and figure out how to work it into his plan for world peace or whatever. Tonight he almost fell apart when the blast happened, and we were in the parking lot, we weren’t even inside yet. Then the crowd poured out and he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you. If you weren’t obviously a Beta I’d start wondering if you two were mates.”

“What’s his name?” Felicity asked, her heart doing a somersault inside her chest.

“Tommy Merlyn. Why, do you know him?”

“I know him. In a business sense.”

Thea smiled. “Well, if you decide you want to get to know him in a dating sense, I’m sure he’d say yes. Hey, are the crepes fantastic? I’m hearing rumors.”

Felicity blinked from the sudden change in topic but she managed to smile and stood up, gesturing to the long table of food. “I’m going for seconds, wanna come?”

Thea unfolded her lithe, elegant form from the couch and slipped her heels back on. “Let’s go!”

Before they reached the table, someone in the crowd cried out in pain. Felicity’s stomach cramped with pain in response and she drew a quick, gasping breath. Thea instinctively threw her arm in front of Felicity. Conversation immediately died, and the music seemed too loud in response. Felicity jammed a fist into her side, like she could work out the sharp pain that wasn’t a running cramp, and tried to see who was in distress. Another cry came, this one muffled, like someone was trying not to make a scene but couldn’t help crying out. Felicity’s heart started racing. Thea pushed her way into the crowd, demanding who was in trouble, and Felicity followed in her wake. She expected to see someone had stepped on a bit of broken glass, but instead, she saw a woman curled up into the tiniest ball she could manage, one hand splayed on the floor, reaching toward the door. 

“Alpha!” someone yelled. “Need an Alpha here, stat!” 

To Felicity’s surprise, Thea knelt down by the woman and got her wrist right under the woman’s nose. “I’m an Alpha, what do we need here?” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. The woman breathed deeply over the scent gland in Thea’s wrist and she uncrumpled a little.

Felicity heard the explanation—the blast had triggered a delayed stress reaction, and a young Omega had been jerked out of a normal cycle and into heat without warning. Thea looked like she had it handled, but it had been a very “wait and see” sort of a night and Felicity was sick of it. She wanted to do something, help the situation, solve the problem, not stand by and watch helplessly while the Omega tried not to make a scene. Unfortunately, she was starting to realize the fast food hadn’t agreed with her. She felt nauseated, and the cramp in her belly didn’t feel like she was going to be sick, but she should probably just call it a night. 

“Thea Queen is a very responsible Alpha,” came a voice in Felicity’s ear. She flinched but didn’t turn around. His scent was thick in her senses, trying to calm her down. _Tommy._ “She’ll get the Omega to her preferred Alpha inside of five minutes or take care of the situation herself. You don’t have to worry.”

“I’m not worried.” Felicity looked straight ahead as if she could see through the wall of the club and into the street. 

“Your heart rate is up. You’re flushed and anxious. I just wanted you to know, that woman already feels better and isn’t going to suffer any further. See? Thea’s escorting her to the door, they’re going outside to transport the woman as quickly as possible.”

“Okay.” Felicity couldn’t manage more than that. The cramp in her belly started to grow all the way up to her heart, which was racing like a herd of elephants. 

“Felicity, are you okay?” Tommy moved closer. He still wasn’t touching her. Felicity shook her head. It was buzzing, and her tongue felt swollen and strange. Then a familiar spike stabbed her temple and she almost laughed in relief.

“Reaction to my meds. Makes me sick. Came out of nowhere though, usually I’m fine by the end of the day. Makes me a night person.” She pressed the heel of her hand to her head and looked around for Ray and Anna, but didn’t see them. 

“Are you sure it wasn’t an empathetic breach?” Tommy herded her away from the crowd and put her back against a solid piece of wall. He stood to the side, not caging her in, letting her see the crowd regaining their momentum by revisiting the bar and the food tables. Everything was going back to normal. Everything except her. 

Felicity closed her eyes, but the vertigo didn’t subside. She placed both clammy hands on the wall behind her, feeling its slick, solid surface. Everything in her ached to just lean sideways and let Tommy Merlyn hold her up. She had the feeling that would make all her side effects vanish, all her pain go away. 

But that would start her down a road she did not want to travel.

“Beta suppressants would prevent that. I’ve never been affected by other Omegas in any way. I’m just tired. I’ll find my friends and just get right home.” 

Tommy hesitated. 

“I don’t think your suppressants are working,” he said.

“And whose fault is that?!” Felicity snapped her head up, her stomach lurching in response, but when she saw his eyes, everything stopped. Fire blazed in his blue eyes, anchoring her to the floor. She felt positively grounded. Gone was the frustrated feeling of spinning her wheels. Gone was the anxiety of worrying about a potential fight with Anna, who she’d been avoiding all night. Her dizziness vanished and the pain in her belly, her head, her heart, cranked down to a low level. Her heart sank when she realized that Tommy was right, she’d just suffered an empathetic breach: when the Omega woman had cried out in pain, Felicity had felt untethered, too, and craved an Alpha, but it had nothing to do with heat, it had to do with proximity to the woman and empathy for her situation. Similar biology responding to stimuli. She had a hundred questions about the woman’s situation, but now none of them seemed to matter. Not because she didn’t care—the whole room felt bad for the poor woman who got yanked out of her normal rhythm—but because she, Felicity, was a different Omega and her Alpha was right in front of her, carefully shielding her from the nascent pheromones the woman had been throwing as she left in Thea’s care. 

“Just breathe,” Tommy said, holding his arms loose at his sides, waiting to see if he needed to catch her. “It’ll take more than an explosion in a restaurant to drop you. Breathe, Felicity.”

“I was in the ladies’ room when it happened,” Felicity said, blurting out the truth. “I mean, it’s awful, what happened to that guy. I guess he made those enemies himself but death by rocket launcher seems really extreme. And then we came here like a twisted wedding reception or something. But that woman…she was in pain.”

“Thea was worried about the collective psyche of the crowd outside the restaurant. She sensed more than a dozen Omegas and figured out a way to feed and calm them down to prevent panic incidents, and raise money for the Sanchez family. I hate to admit it, but it was a genius plan and there was only that one Omega who was jolted out of rhythm from the trauma, so I think tonight was a weird success, don’t you?”

“Thea didn’t sense me,” Felicity said. “She smelled Beta on me.”

“Yeah, but then there was a threat and her instincts had her side-arming you like a soccer mom. She’s not going to let that go.”

“You can’t tell her. Everyone thinks I’m a Beta. Not some fragile Omega.”

“You think that woman dropped because she was weak? No way. The event bothered her to a point where her regular cycle was disturbed, yes, but that’s not weakness, that’s just hormones. We don’t know her situation, we don’t know what she’s been through. Any Alpha who saw she was having trouble could have stabilized her, triggering a release of their own pheromone and bringing a balance to everyone in the room, Betas included. The world works, Felicity, and it works because of Omegas, not in spite of them.”

Felicity only heard half his speech. The other half of her stared at his neck. His tie was loose, but his collar still covered the incredible scent emanating from his skin. She wanted to bury her face there and stay in his strong arms all night. It killed her to admit that that’s what she needed, too—that everything going haywire in her body right now would be corrected and healed by contact with an Alpha. Her Alpha. She’d be fixed in seconds and would probably have a good night’s sleep and wake out without the usual crushing joint pain and shaking that took an hour of yoga and ridiculous amount of herbal meds just to get her into the office on time. 

“Felicity?”

“I don’t want you,” she whispered. It was a terrible lie.

Tommy nodded, understanding what she’d meant, and not being offended. “I know,” he sighed.

The faint puff of breath from his sigh filled her nostrils and calmed her down even further. Her breasts swelled and ached, and she crossed her arms tightly over her chest to keep from leaking. _Dammit._ Fate was so not on her side tonight.

“What’s fate got to do with anything?” Tommy asked, amused, and Felicity looked up at him again. She didn’t know she’d said that out loud. 

“I can’t move,” she confessed. “I need…I need to be close to you or it will start hurting again.”

“Jesus, Felicity.” Tommy’s fists were clenched. “Please let me touch you. Just my hand on your shoulder. Let me ground you.”

“If you touch bare skin we might bond. I don’t _want_ that!”

“Yes you do,” he countered with heat in his voice. “Every cell in your body wants this, wants me. You just think strength means suffering in silence. Do you think you’re the only one in pain right now?”  
Felicity took in his clenched jaw, his ragged breathing, the stiff set of his shoulders. Her pain affected _him_? No. _No._ Stubborn determination had got her incredibly far in life, but she wasn’t going to let her pride be the cause of someone else’s pain. That was selfish, and unnecessary, and mean…but…

“I don’t want to lose my freedom,” she whispered, tears choking her voice.

“Oh, Felicity,” Tommy said, his features crumpling in sympathy. “This isn’t freedom, this is every inch of your body and your life and your work being destroyed by Beta hormones. You want freedom? Come to me.” 

Felicity swallowed thickly. She couldn’t free her arms, because then he’d scent the nectar leaking traitorously from her breasts. But she couldn’t fight it anymore, couldn’t resist the temptation to just take one minute of comfort in his arms. So she just leaned her forehead against his shoulder and breathed in the clean, crisp scent of him. Laundry detergent, and deodorant, and that mystical cologne that hadn’t been sweated off yet, and something earthy and tantalizing that must be the Alpha scent gland in his neck. She was close to it. Close enough to latch on and suck the skin into her mouth, nurse it til it bruised. Her mouth watered. Her teeth ached. Then she felt his hands on her bare back, and her knees wobbled at the peace that thundered through her. Tommy clutched her tighter, one hand low around her waist, the other splayed across her spine. 

“Oh, god,” Tommy said, almost too soft for her to hear. But Felicity didn’t need him to speak. She could feel what he was feeling, and she’d only ever read about it in books. The surge of satisfaction, of the world falling into place like Tetris cubes, because an Alpha was doing what they were born to do—protect an Omega. Make him or her feel safe and loved and cared for. Every tight ball of tension in Tommy’s body, every ounce of pain Felicity had created by denying him contact, that was all gone now. 

Everything was gone. 

###

“Shh, hey, it’s okay. It’s okay, Felicity. I’ve got you.” Tommy lightly stroked his hand up and down Felicity’s back, giving her goosebumps that echoed on his arm, under his shirt. She was crying into his shirtfront, not even aware of it, probably, and he felt tears in his own eyes. He didn’t understand. What had happened to her in her life that she hated being an Omega? Underneath her resentment was fear, but Tommy had never seen it run so deep in anyone before. Worry about what it would be like to be mastered by an Alpha, yes. Worry about finding someone to support you as a partner, yes. Worry that your mate would never find you, or that they would and it would be awful, these were normal fears and he’d counseled so many people about them, all Alphas had, they were used to it. But Felicity was falling apart just because she’d given in to hugging him, and she still hadn’t even really abandoned herself to it, she was still curled up as tight as she could be, only letting her forehead touch his shoulder. 

Tommy heard Thea re-enter the club, telling everyone the situation was handled and the woman was in good hands. But he couldn’t take his eyes off his mate. Felicity was dressed in a dark blue cocktail dress that flared out at the knee and shimmered with tiny, scale-like tucks in the bodice. The back was bare, clearly flaunting the weather, and her shoes were bright fuchsia, like her lips. Her hair was out of her work ponytail and swung around her shoulders in fat curls. He could stand there all night and assuage her fears about accepting her Omega status, making her feel better, but what he wanted was to drag her downstairs to his headquarters in the basement of the club and fall into bed until they were both too tired to scream each other’s name anymore.

“It’s going to be very hard to lie to Thea,” Tommy said quietly. “She’s my sister, and I don’t keep secrets from her.”

“Keep this one,” Felicity said in a panicky voice. She tried to stand taller, but it was hard for her to do with her arms crossed over her chest. She was hugging herself so hard. 

“Okay, calm down. Don’t move, don’t move.” Tommy pressed his cheek to her hair and closed his eyes. He breathed deeply of her scent, wishing it weren’t fractured with Beta hormones. It was like someone had stretched her thin like a bubble and then popped it, then tried to make a new one, but each time it kept getting thinner and thinner. He was starting to worry she’d been permanently damaged. All of Anna Palmer’s genetics were experimental. What if she’d accidentally hurt Felicity beyond repair? She needed to taste him, she needed to be drenched in his scent. Tommy shifted a little, but he couldn’t let go of her to yank his collar aside, and was completely shocked to feel cool, efficient hands doing it for him.

“Relax.” The command was rich with power. Tommy obeyed. The other Alpha’s familiar scent spoke the word _family_ so deep in his soul he didn’t feel a threat. Thea’s presence was covered in Alpha markers that radiated confidence and satisfaction, which told Tommy that Thea was happy about how it had worked out with the Omega who had started to drop. Thea worked his tie off and unbuttoned his shirt without touching Felicity, for which he was grateful. As soon as the cotton was away from his skin, Felicity dragged her head up and burrowed into him with a deep sigh.

He wished her canines would drop and sink into his flesh, but he knew that wouldn’t happen. Not tonight. She’d been too doped up for too long to allow a blood exchange. 

“I’m clearing the club. Do not move. Do _not move._ ” Thea’s voice still commanded power and Tommy had no desire to buck against the order. Stories of Alphas fighting each other over Omegas and territorial disputes hit the news to sell papers, but in all truth, Alphas enjoyed a mutually beneficial existence. Alpha Councils were proof of that. Tommy was used to working with his sister to keep the people of Starling City cared for. 

In more ways than one.

So he let his eyes drift shut and gathered Felicity as close as she’d let him, and prayed for her mouth to latch onto his neck over his aching, swollen gland, but she kept her mouth stubbornly closed and just breathed him in. Maybe that’s all she was capable of. He tilted his neck to give her better access but she just nuzzled him. It was almost like she was marking him, but not quite. He was filled with anger at Anna Palmer for aiding and abetting Felicity for years and years, but a nagging and insistent voice in the back of his head told him the truth, which was that he wasn’t giving Felicity what she needed. If he commanded her, she’d try and scrape him even if her teeth didn’t drop. If he ordered, she would put her arms around him. If he forced power down the thin bond forming between them it would grow and swell and _live_ and he could take her against the wall, surge inside her and complete the bonding that would heal her and solve all their problems. He’d done it plenty of times before with Omegas who weren’t his mate. 

So why was he holding back now?

Minutes felt like hours as Tommy walked them back, inch by inch, until Felicity’s backside hit the wall and he protected her front. He didn’t hear the guests leave or the workers cleaning up, but when the lights went off he started skimming Felicity’s lower back with his fingertips. Slow, little circles, raising goosebumps on her soft skin. He curled his knuckles and brushed the dip above her waistband and suddenly sensed a new smell—arousal. 

Well, now they were getting somewhere. Days of no contact after her breathtaking accusation against his father, hours of patience with her reticence, and now it was paying off. 

His training had not been in vain.

Thea walked up to him from the side, not the back, her hands where he could see them.

“Ray and Anna Palmer are waiting outside. They’ll take her home unless…she stays with you?”

Tommy shifted his eyes to his sister, but didn’t stop caressing Felicity’s back. Thea was unphased by the sensual contact in her presence and nodded her approval. 

“There’s work to do,” Thea said, her voice evenly modulated. “I’ll take the night shift.”

Tommy cursed under his breath. He knew Thea was more than capable of what she was offering, but they’d been following this lead for months. How could he let the loose ends dangle? Harry Tobol clearly was the target of the restaurant attack. Facts pointed to a retaliation attack by the Gobi Outfit, who’d lost a big turf war to Tobol’s group the night before. Now the Tobol gang was scrambling to elect a new leader and the Gobi mob had tipped their hand to the Squadron as to where that lot of rocket launchers had disappeared to. It wouldn’t take him long to follow the trail back to the weapon stockpile. He would then give any leads to the Chief, after he took care of the situation himself. That’s how they worked. The Squadron taking care of as much as they could, the Midnight Vigilante taking care of the rest.

Thea Queen and Quentin Lance, the Squadron Chief, were the only people who knew his secret identity. Even his father didn’t know. But Tommy wasn’t going to let twenty years of League-inspired training go to waste. Malcolm thought he was wasting his birthright but left him out of League business because he legitimately needed his son at Merlyn Global, and Tommy was an excellent chief operating officer. After midnight, however, Tommy turned into something else. Someone else. Someone who canvassed the dark for darker things and took care of them. His own way. 

He didn’t expect Felicity Smoak to show up and throw his carefully ordered schedule into disarray. First of all, he’d heard next to no chatter about anything shady going on with the Unidac auction. It was purported to be the most boring auction ever held at the Exchange building. The press was only even really covering it because Unidac and Kord had so recently merged, and business news readers might be interested in such a quick decline. Felicity’s claim that the auction was going to be the site of a premeditated murder designed by his own father? Tommy had found no proof of that…and yet, knowing his father’s obsession with improving the League’s chances of survival, he was tempted to believe Felicity and her very damning folder of evidence.

But then mob bosses got burned to a crisp in the middle of the salad course, and he had to push back the Unidac question to deal with the more pressing problem: getting weapons of mass destruction off the streets. 

“No, I’ll come with you. Wait for me downstairs.”

Thea glanced at Felicity, her eyes filled to the brim with unasked questions. Then she turned silently on her heel and headed to the shadows. Tommy heard the keypad snap open and the secret door shift open and shut behind her. Carefully, he slid his hand to Felicity’s chin and pulled her off of him. Cool air dried the damp patch of his neck. She was still and calm, her heartbeat even, color back in her cheeks.

“I need to go,” Tommy told her reluctantly. “Thea needs my help.”

Felicity nodded. She swallowed, then licked her teeth thoughtfully.

“I should have bit you, right?” she guessed in a self-recriminating way. Tommy shook his head and smiled.

“You did fine. You did great. There’s no timetable or checklist. But I need you to seriously consider weaning off your suppressants. Just….just consider it. Please.”

“I guess there’s no fighting biology.” Tears sprang into her eyes and she blinked them away. “I’ll start a removal protocol tomorrow. Unless you wanted to…sever the bond? I’m probably going to be the worst Omega on the planet. I’ll probably never speak a life-altering, heroic prophecy. You shouldn’t have to suffer that.”

Tommy put one hand behind her neck and kissed her, flooding her with powerful and deep-reaching Alpha bonding sensoryphytes. She whimpered and lifted her chin, meeting the pressure of his lips. He kept the pressure firm and deliberate, moving softly, coaxing her to relax and enjoy what he had to offer, which was never, ever going to be a severing of this bond. Before he could deepen the kiss she broke contact, stepping away. Tommy met her eyes, but the look in her eyes wasn’t fear, it was worry.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I’ll get better at that. Probably.”

Tommy shook his head. Did she think she’d done it wrong? Damn, but if Alphas could read minds, wouldn’t that solve a whole lot of problems? That was the best kiss of his life. Short, sweet, so damn sweet. He was going to live on that instant replay for weeks.

“I will never reject you, Felicity, formally or otherwise. Go home, get some sleep. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

“I have a symposium in Central City tomorrow. Tomorrow night?”

“Ugh, I’m leaving for Europe. I can’t…dammit. I can’t cancel. Can you promise me that if you feel any pain at all, any hint that you’re going into Omega drop, you will call my sister? I trust her. I trust her with you.”

“I’m sure I can handle a couple of days away from you. I feel fine now. I think you calmed me down, or normalized whatever was going haywire. Thanks for that.”

“Felicity, promise me.”

“No. I don’t want anyone else.” The honest words shocked her and her eyes widened. Tommy couldn’t help feel incredibly pleased. He kissed her forehead and spun her around, then pulled the hair off the back of her neck and blew lightly on her nape. He knew he was raising more arousal hormones, but he didn’t intend to force a bond. He just wanted to introduce the idea to her stripped-back synapses. To give her a moment of pleasure, so maybe the next time he touched her she wouldn’t feel so afraid. He carefully pressed one soft, delicate kiss right over her spine.

“Goodnight, Felicity.”

Tommy took one look back over his shoulder as he walked into the back of the club. Felicity’s arms were crossed over her chest, her fingers digging into her shoulders, her head tilted to the side. Behind her glasses, her intelligent blue eyes were trying to see past him, through him, inside him. He held up one hand as a wave, and disappeared into the darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated E. So is the next one. This fic has A/B/O dynamics and they might not be for you. I heard a phrase not used in fandom much (but why?!) that goes YKINMKATO. It stands for "Your kink is not my kink and that's okay." Please apply that phrase to this fic going forward! That said, there is only consensual sex btw main characters. (as consensual as you get with the trope and a biological imperative, are you with me?) I will be happy to answer questions in comments. 
> 
> It should be noted that in this fic, any gender can be any Dynamic. It's a fictional, alien-manipulated AU and so I chose to write a world with no hate for a person's sexual choices or lack thereof. Because that is what fanfic is for! Thank you.

Weaning off Beta suppressants hurt. It hurt like a motherfucker. That wasn’t the scientific term, but Felicity didn’t have time for science, she was too busy throwing up. And when she wasn’t nauseous or shaking too hard to drive, she had blinding migraines and the worst joint pain of her life as her body tried to reacclimate itself to the biology she’d been born with. Anna Palmer was apologetic but even Felicity had to agree that Anna never would have built her up so far for so long if the goal hadn’t been neurological reassignment. She was never supposed to meet her mated Alpha, and now she had, and he kissed her once and then left for Europe and landed in an international news article about Merlyn Global Group acquiring PennHospital and opening new facilities in Prague and Ibiza. 

But he did text her. 

Silly things about the meals he ate and which tie he should wear. Serious things like asking about her health. (She lied.) And then there were thoughtful texts, like when he asked her opinion about a new computer security system for the new medical subsidiaries. Palmer Tech had a branch in Paris and Felicity was able to send a team out to Prague to meet with Tommy and advise the architects. That was nice. It felt like Tommy was a friend. A friend who pulled her system out of a tailspin every time she read a text from him. 

For the first time since she begged Anna and Ray to hide her Omega status, Felicity thought that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, being an Omega out in the open. Thea Queen had managed to keep any gossip out of the news, not that any of the guests at the club that night really cared about one blonde in the corner. And Felicity knew her own coworkers wouldn’t care. They’d probably be relieved. 

She turned her attention to the dark web, looking for more information about the sniper supposedly hired to do the kill shots at the Unidac auction. She couldn’t find anything other than his name, Deadshot, but she did block a snoop from ARGUS and shut down the trojan with a roll of her eyes that made her dizzy again. That persistent organization with the tenacious Amanda Waller at the helm was the bane of every black-ops organization in the world. They were nosy and mean and didn’t play well with others. Felicity threw a virus back at them, timed to bloom in their systems three months from now, when she’d be long gone. But it was interesting that ARGUS was seeking information about Deadshot, too. She didn’t know if it was related to Malcolm Merlyn’s plan for the Unidac auction or not, but Felicity put together an untraceable tip for the Starling City Squadron. Tommy Merlyn probably believed her, but he was avoiding talking about it because of his father, so Felicity sent the information to the Squadron. Hopefully there would be a police presence on the day of the auction. Maybe the Midnight Vigilante would show up and disrupt the whole thing. Though Starling City’s occasional superhero was more of a clean-up crew than an instigator. And he never showed up during the daytime. But maybe he-or-she would scare away the sniper or at least provide some bodyguard action for the people bidding on the company. 

Felicity gulped down another toxin-wash, feeling the effect on her skin. She ached to go home and take another shower with the soap that would remove the Beta-hormones from the surface of her skin, but instead she followed the toxin-wash with a vitamin smoothie and tried not to gag. When she’d evened out she would start drinking coffee again. Lots of it. She sat down in her chair and called up the front page of the Starling City Gazette to see if there were any new bits of information about the Unidac auction. 

Instead, she saw her worst nightmare.

The woman’s body had washed up on the shore of Starling Bay Beach, bloated and nearly unrecognizable. Forensics ID-ed her as Tricia Yanaka, a woman from the Glades who was reported missing almost a year ago. The story said a brand had been seared into her flesh, an “O” with two lines intersecting like the crosshairs of a rifle. No local gangs were taking credit for the kill and no anti-governmental groups did, either. The paper reported that she had registered as an Omega but was not mated. The Squadron was looking into the suspicious death. 

Felicity stared at the picture of the brand for what seemed like an hour.

“Felicity? You okay?” Curtis Holt, her right hand man, lowered his tablet and frowned in concern. He pushed his glasses up and his eyes widened as he took in Felicity’s pale cheeks and parted lips. “Woah. Breathe, Felicity. Breathe!” Felicity sucked in a breath and Curtis bobbed his head. “That’s good. Do it again. Okay, do you need me to call Dr. Palmer?”

“No.” Felicity was done calling Anna. Everything itched, her clothing didn’t fit right, and she was irritable as hell. However, she knew it was the right thing to do, so she wasn’t going to complain. Besides, Anna Palmer knew as well as Felicity what the brand meant. Felicity didn’t want to talk about it. “Tell Dr. Palmer I read the front page and went home.”

“Ooookay.” Curtis laughed nervously. “Got a hot tip for the Squadron?”

“Something like that, yeah. Sorry, Curtis. Get the X-gamma interface ready to test by Monday and tell Gigi I approved her line budget for the shell project.” Felicity shrugged into her tan coat and grabbed her purse. “See you tomorrow.”

She didn’t know how she got to Tommy Merlyn’s penthouse. The guard in the lobby let her through, but the lock thwarted her. She sat down with her back to the door, comforted by the scent of him leaking through the frame. She opened her laptop and decided to deal with her inbox while she was away from the lab. Tommy would be home eventually, and then she could tell him the one thing that would send him running. Should send him running. Well, if he rejected her, she’d just switch protocols and go to another continent, where she could dive into N-R and not even Anna could stop her. 

“He’s in Prague.”

Felicity looked up from her laptop. The Alpha in front of her was a public figure, but far less a darling of the paparazzi than his charismatic son. Malcolm Merlyn loomed over her, holding out a hand to help her rise. He was medium height with thick auburn hair and large blue eyes. He looked like the stock business photo that occasionally accompanied his face in the papers, but Felicity had seen him in photos without the public smile. She scrambled to her feet without his help and pressed her back to the door, wishing it would swallow her up. He was dangerous. He was probably evil. And he was not backing away. 

“I know where he is. Thank you.”

“Of course. I stopped by because the downstairs guard couldn’t reach Tommy to tell him that you were here—something he requested happen no matter what time of day or night—so the guard called me. Malcolm Merlyn, Tommy’s dad.”

“Nice to meet you,” Felicity said. “I was just…I came over to…”

“You saw the paper and ran to the one man you think is going to keep you safe from the Midwife.”

Felicity saw brown spots in her vision, but she didn’t faint. The door, Tommy’s front door, held her up. 

“I don’t blame you, Felicity. Living with your genetic abnormality must be scary as hell. The embryogenetic fusion of the Mullerian ducts fails to occur in such a small percentage of Omegas but when it does…the Midwife collects.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Malcolm said. His voice raised quickly and sharply, but Felicity raised her chin. She hadn’t spent her whole life fighting bullies just to be undone by one old man without a single weapon on him. “You know the symbol. Your mom was branded.”

“Don’t talk about my mother.”

“No record of a brand on you, according to medical records. I can’t believe the Midwife didn’t follow up on family members of one of her known victims. Maybe you didn’t get checked in time. Didn’t you go off to college a little earlier than usual?”

“Leave me alone.”

Malcolm raised his hands as if she was the aggressor. “I’m saying you’re lucky not to have caught the Midwife’s attention. She hates to miss a single case.”

With a sinking heart, Felicity understood the stakes. “What do you want, Mr. Merlyn?”

“I want you to marry my son.”

Felicity blinked. “What?”

“Tommy. When he comes home, stop hiding from him. Stop pretending you’re not mated to him, and let him mark you. Bond with him. Be what he needs.” Malcolm lifted his chin. “Tricia Yanaka’s body was a message. To you and anyone else in Starling City who bears the mutation. The Midwife will not stop until she has collected every single Omega with the aberration. My son will protect you and in turn, you will be the stability he needs to take hold of his true birthright.”

“He’s already groomed to be CEO of Merlyn Global. Are you looking at early retirement?” 

Malcolm gave her a smile that was impossible for her to interpret.

“Here’s a key. Lock the door behind you.”

Felicity snatched the key out of his hand. Her pinkie touched the side of his hand and she was repulsed. His scent was oily. Malcolm turned and left, and Felicity did go into Tommy’s penthouse and locked herself in. It was a hundred times better being in his space, even if he wasn’t replying to her texts. She let Anna know she was safe, and then padded up the wide stairs and found the bedroom that had to be his. But she was too keyed up to sleep. She kicked off her shoes and sat crosslegged on the bed, leaning back against the headboard. There was a view out the window of the city skyline and she watched the sun set and the hundreds of lights come on in the buildings around Tommy’s loft. She must have fallen asleep because at three in the morning, she heard a key in the lock. She sat straight up in bed. Was it Malcolm Merlyn? Had he come back to mock her for cowering in a room full of her mate’s scent? Or had he changed his mind about what he wanted Felicity to do, and decided that selling information of her existence to the Midwife was a better plan? Then she heard a suitcase drop in the foyer.

“Felicity? Felicity, are you here?”

Felicity ran down the stairs in her bare feet and launched herself into Tommy’s arms. She buried her nose in his neck. Underneath the stale airport smell was his unique scent and she filled herself with it until she stopped shaking. Tommy picked her up and carried her back to the giant California king-size bed that she’d rumpled. He dropped to his knees on the floor and held her cold hands in his as he looked up at her.

“My father called me. Said you were here waiting for me. Please, please tell me what’s going on.”

“Your father is scary,” Felicity told him. Tommy blew out a frustrated breath. 

“Did he hurt you?” _Because I’ll kill him_ was implicit in his tone.

“Tommy, I have to tell you something. It’s…it’s really awful, and you’re going to be freaked out.”

“Way to spin it, Felicity.” Tommy grinned and stood, his knees cracking. “Nothing is going to make me run, okay? Just…let me jump in the shower. I want to scent you but all I can smell is airplane. Can your news hold about five minutes?”

It had held almost all her life. “Yes, of course. Go clean up.”

As advertised, Tommy was back beside her in about five minutes, smelling like soap and himself again. He wore a soft cotton t-shirt with a hole near the collar and drawstring sweatpants, and he was barefoot. His hair smelled like the pillowcase she’d been sleeping on. Felicity sagged against him. Her skin didn’t itch where their thighs touched. She sat as close to him as she dared. His arms were more muscled that she’d thought they were underneath his suits. She knew he swam daily and used the gym, but she didn’t expect it to show like a magazine ad. 

“I’m not complaining that you’re here,” Tommy said as her fingers touched his forearm, “but you kind of scared me tonight. My father is…complicated. I’m glad he called me home. Why didn’t you?”

“You were on business,” Felicity said with a frown. “I can wait.”

“You come first. You’re my mate.” Tommy sat up and kissed her lips. Felicity gasped at the simple, undramatic affection. This wasn’t an anticipated kiss at the end of the night, this was just…right. She opened her mouth and he licked into her, groaning at the taste. Felicity let him teach her how to kiss. She liked his hands on her face, his thumb and forefinger gripping her chin, turning the kiss wet and dirty. He bit her earlobe and ran his tongue down the outside shell of her ear, then blew on the wet flesh and nuzzled it with his cheek. 

“Am I doing it right?” Felicity heard her own small voice. Cursed it. But there they were, the thoughts she didn’t have time for rearing their ugly heads. 

Tommy pulled away slightly. Concern clouded his blue eyes. “Doing what right?”

“Kissing. I want to not care what you think, but…I care what you think.”

Tommy regarded her with a gaze she couldn’t interpret. “You know I’d never judge you. Are you mad at yourself for your lack of experience? Because I’m not.”

“It’s literally my job to please you, but you’re the fourth most important project I’m working on,” Felicity said bluntly. “I don’t like being stretched too thin.”

Tommy laughed. He shifted back on the bed, stacking a pillow behind his back. He fluffed a pillow for her and positioned it next to him. Felicity sat next to him, close enough to lean her folded leg on his, far enough away to look him in the eye. She felt warm, but not too hot. Peaceful, but still knew the exits. 

“I don’t know what part of me wants you and what part of me is programmed to want you,” Felicity explained. “I haven’t been with anyone. Ever. The suppressants effectively turned that part of me off. I have friends, I go out, I have hobbies, I’ve traveled…I’ve done everything except date. I wish I could just have a one-night stand, but I’ve just never been interested. Programmed like some code to only want my mate, or when I’m in heat, any Alpha. It didn’t matter to me when I was getting my education or starting a business, but it matters to me now. Zero to everything in one day. And the worst part of it is, it feels _good_ to me. I mean, not the side-effects, but being here with you. I thought it would feel like a betrayal of my life, but instead it feels like I’m waking up and I don’t know how to process that. Or deal with a sex drive, all of a sudden. _That’s_ new.”

Tommy just nodded understandingly. “Without suppressants, you would have a sex drive tied to a heat cycle like all Omegas, instead of a menstrual cycle like Betas. And for the record, I am on birth control. And I’m tested regularly at my mom’s clinic.”

“Don’t try to out-science the scientist,” Felicity said, swatting his hand where it rested on her hip. He pressed his fingers in and she gasped at the increased pressure. It felt so good. 

“What are you feeling now? What do you want?” Tommy’s voice was low and harsh in her ear, like he was two seconds away from devouring her. The mate-gland in her neck swelled at the same time as her clit, and she tightened all her muscles in automatic fight or flight nervousness. Tommy kissed the back of her neck, around to the side, little nips and licks around her gland. He told her she was beautiful and had nothing to fear, he was pleased just by her existence in his bed, her courageous trust in him. 

Felicity pulled away from the comforting heat of him, and it cut like a knife. She was a fraud, and she knew it. It was time he knew it, too.

“I want you to know the truth,” Felicity said. “The real reason I’m so desperate to be a Beta.”

“This talk needs more pillows.” Tommy left her side and padded across the room to a large closet. He made several trips with blankets and pillows, surrounding her in a nest that smelled like him. Felicity had heard of this—Omegas desired safe, comfortable nests and Alphas provided them. 

“Are you making me a nest?” she asked, just to confirm. Tommy climbed into the fluffy alcove with her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“I’m hoping that you coming here means you realize there is no going back. I want anything that happens between us tonight to happen in a place you feel warm and safe, not under the harsh lights of a lab or a doctor’s office. Or, god forbid, a cave in the middle of nowhere, which is where my father explained to me what being an Alpha entailed. I was twelve, just starting to notice girls—and my best friend, Oliver, if we’re going for total honesty tonight—and Malcolm decided he wasn’t going to wait. His son would know his duty before it overwhelmed him, and never, ever have to lose control.” 

“You’re good at self-control. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and most Alphas just order Omegas to obey using power, like you did to me the first day we met.”

“I’m sorry I did that. I didn’t know you were my mate, I just thought you were trying to push my buttons. Concerning my father, they’re easy to push. Lick me, right here.” Tommy offered her the scent gland in his wrist. Felicity wrinkled her nose and he slowly placed his arm in her lap. “It’s less intimate than my neck or my thigh, and the scent will calm you down. Go ahead. Take your time.”

Felicity huffed in annoyance, but grabbed his arm and touched her tongue to the bundle of pheromones that hovered under his skin. Tommy kept his face impassive, so Felicity licked him again, her eyelids fluttering closed, and sucked the tiniest little bit—just enough pressure to make Tommy grind his teeth together so he wouldn’t moan in pleasure. Then it was time to cross her arms over her chest, because for some reason that was the way her body knew how to burst through all the Beta synthetics. The self-protective measure was as clear as the word “no” and so Tommy just nodded and patted her knee.

“Better?” he asked, not even a hint of arrogance. 

“I hate to admit it, but… yes.” Felicity drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them. Tommy draped a green chenille blanket around her shoulders and smiled deep enough to show his dimple.

“Okay, Felicity. What made you want to stop being an Omega?”

“Anna…didn’t tell you much, did she?”

“No. Just that she met you before you presented, and put you on suppressants right away. And now you’re here, in my bed, and everything in me says you’re my mate.”

“You are.” Felicity looked away. She didn’t say anything else for a full minute. 

“Felicity, since I met you I’ve listened to hours of lectures you’ve given at symposiums all over the country, watched the vlogs and the podcasts and I know you never, ever lack for words. Whatever is bothering you, it’s okay, you can tell me.”

“I just want you to know that after I tell you, I am giving you a free pass to reject me. Okay?”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Tommy, I mean it.”

“So do I.”

Felicity heaved a big sigh and pulled at the blanket fringe. “My mother was kept by two men. Two Alphas. She got aroused in both places. In front and…and behind. Every time she went into heat, she bred twins for them. She had this condition, uterus didelphys. Two wombs. Anna Palmer researched it for me and found that many evolutionary geneticists think that is what the aliens meant all Omegas to have, to repopulate the earth, but it became a recessive gene instead. The Alphas, who were not her mates…” Felicity’s throat closed up and she swallowed hard. “They sold the babies. Stole them away from her every single time. I was the only one they kept, and that’s only because my twin died and I was too sickly to sell, and by the time I’d gotten strong enough, my mother fought to keep me. That’s one reason I convinced Anna to build a personal Omega-blocking protocol for me. After she discovered I am one of the rare Omegas who would be matched with two men. I imagined a lifetime of watching two Alphas fight over me and sell my offspring to the highest bidder, I decided that was not going to happen, and threw myself into my work. I figured if I never met the other guy and got you to reject me in an official capacity, I’d be safe.”

“Oh, Felicity.”

“I know it. I’m a freak. A freak Omega who probably should have popped out a dozen pups by now. Instead, one Alpha’s got a psycho father and the other one…who the hell knows where he is.”

“I’m not going to hurt you, Felicity,” Tommy said, his voice soft. “We should talk about this.”

“About how I will get slicked up the ass like a male Omega ready for a rut?” Felicity laughed but there was no humor there. “I don’t talk like this. I don’t even _think_ like this.”

“You spoke of your mother in the past tense. Is she deceased?”

“Yes, she died right before I went to college. The Alphas still had each other so they didn’t go into a grieving state. They probably found another woman or pair of women to keep their lucrative breeding business going. I haven’t had any contact with them since I left Vegas. For all I know, they’re dead too. And good riddance.”

“Is there a reason you’re telling me this now?”

Felicity opened her mouth to tell Tommy about the Midwife, and then she remembered Malcolm’s threat. She had no doubt that Malcolm would sell her to that evil, soul-sucking demon in a heartbeat if she didn’t do what he wanted. And what if the Midwife did come after her, and Tommy got in the way? If he died, it would be her fault. 

“I just don’t want to get close to you, or bond with you, without you knowing the truth. There might be another person out there that will share this bond with us. I mean, maybe that will never happen, but if it does? I didn’t want to lie.”

“Felicity, I’m honored you told me the truth. And to be honest, I wouldn’t fight a bond if another Alpha presented to you. I enjoy men and women and I know the three of us would work it out. Don’t you get it yet? The whole focus of my existence is being focused on you.”  
###

Felicity snorted. “You’re being all noble and understanding and here I am, leaking nectar everywhere like a loser.”

“You’re not a loser—wait, what?”

Felicity dropped her knees and let her arms drop. The front of her shirt was soaked. The scent of it hit Tommy so hard he lunged forward before he had a chance to process the information, his mouth watering to taste her, to suck down all the liquid her breasts had made for him, for her mate. It was only when Felicity held her breath and bit her lip, bracing herself, that he let his head drop on her shoulder instead. He panted as he came, spilling into his boxer shorts with a wordless cry, his nose pressed against the gland in her neck that he wanted to bite. His canines dropped, then retracted with the effort of a lifetime. His Omega didn’t want him. He couldn’t take what was his—not if it wasn’t what she wanted.

“Does it hurt?” Tommy managed to ask. Felicity didn’t say anything, but after a second, she nodded. 

“I’m not exactly stacked. My breasts swell and ache. Not as much as a reaction headache from suppressants, though. I’m surprised you didn’t notice it at Verdant the other night. You can…you can…”

Tommy buried his face into the soft skin of her neck and wrapped his arms around her in a loose embrace. They could sit like that all night if she wanted. She’d come to him, drawn to him, and he’d been in fucking _Prague_ —he’d never forgive himself for not being here when she needed him, when she decided to come see him, and tell him the truth. He didn’t know what had gotten her to voluntarily show up at his door, but he was grateful. He had Felicity in bed with him. He had no right to ask for anything else. But oh god, how he _wanted._

“You can...ugh, I don’t even know the term. This is not my area of expertise. I know it’s meant to calm Alphas down, and I can see how hard you’re trying not to jump me right now, so go ahead.”

Tommy picked his head up and looked her in the eye. 

“Are you sure?”

“I’m still on a few suppressants. I’m not going to have a nervous breakdown about it.” She sighed heavily. “I might not want to be an Omega, but I’m not a bitch. I can see you’re in agony. So go ahead and taste me or whatever.”

So much for a lifetime of mastering control.

“Felicity, I’m honored.”

“Ugh, I knew you would be stupid noble about it. It’s an involuntary secretion. Just do it.”

Felicity was struggling out of her shirt as she talked, and Tommy took the damp garment and folded it into his lap. She pulled the straps of her bra down but didn’t take it off, so Tommy just folded down one lace cup and touched his finger to the golden yellow drop of nectar there. His tongue darted out to taste it, and he actually cried out. It tasted sweet, like finest dessert wine. It was that sunshine taste he felt when she’d visited his office. It was peace and trust and the promise that everything would be all right. Tommy lowered his head and licked her taut nipple, feeling the bud tighten more under his tongue. Felicity hissed. He laved the tight peak and then closed his lips around it and sucked, but didn’t draw more than another drop. It took him a minute to learn how to pull it out, and then he was pushing her down into the nest of pillows, gulping swallow after swallow of the delicious nectar created just for him. It was like the time he’d had knee surgery and had come out of anesthesia telling the doctors he wanted to marry the entire hospital. Oh god, how was he going to go without this for a year when Felicity had a baby? The joy of cradling his own newborn in his arms, watching her feed the new life they’d create together, made him growl.

“Hey, it’s okay, there’s another side.” Felicity, mistaking the noise for anger that he’d drained one breast. Hungrily, Tommy nosed down the other cup of her bra and latched on with expertise. His hands flexed at her back, desperate to skim his fingers down, down, between her legs, back to her ass, to give her as much pleasure as she was giving him. But eventually, the hormones in the nectar calmed him down and he collapsed next to her, lazily mouthing at her breast until he’d gotten every drop.

“Felicity…” Tommy couldn’t move. He felt drugged, limbless. 

“Well. I think I finally did something right as an Omega for once. Was it…did it taste okay?”

“It’s called nectar of the gods for a reason, Felicity. Yes, it was the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am never getting drunk on anything except you, ever again. I mean, I’d heard of how this is the stabilizing center of A-O pairings, but thought it was like, some post-coital thing between mates. I never knew it could be an act in and of itself.”

“I don’t know how often it happens.”

“Any time you want me to drink from you, I will say yes. Even if I’m halfway around the world.”

“You really liked it?” Felicity said shyly. 

“Fuck, yes.”

“It was a little weird. Like, it felt _right_ but it didn’t…turn me on. Should I have been turned on by it?”

“I think this function was, as you said, a calming and bonding mechanism between mates, and not at all sexual. When we have sex, I am sure your breasts will be an erogenous zone with or without nectar. Or maybe it will turn you on the next time it happens. Hell if I know. The Omegas I have serviced at the clinic don’t secrete nectar.”

“That’s helpful,” she said sarcastically.

“I’m saying I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to feel. I feel fantastic.” Tommy grinned at her and she smiled back. Her smile, the first real smile since he’d gotten home, felt like a triumph. “So, are you officially done pursing the Beta transfer?”

“Thought that was obvious when I took my shirt off.”

“I need to hear you say it.”

Felicity sighed. She looked at him for a long minute and then nodded, mostly to herself. “Tommy Merlyn, I am an Omega and you are my mated Alpha. My plumbing is fucked up and I have a lot of baggage, but I am willing to try.”

“I accept. And your plumbing is not fucked up. I don’t care if you have recessive genes that make our babies look like the aliens, either.” Tommy slid his hand under her neck, gathering her hair off to the side. “I’m going to mark you.”

“Now? I thought that was a heat of the moment kind of thing.”

Tommy shook his head. “It can be. Doesn’t have to be. Since you’re still weaning off suppressants and there’s no heat of the moment going on, I can be sure that both of us are in our right minds. Then we’ll get some takeout and talk, or sleep, if you want to stay over. I’d like you to stay.”

“I’ll stay.” Felicity squinched her eyes shut and held her breath. He stroked his fingertips over the gland in her throat, warming the skin, plumping it between his fingers until she squirmed and opened one eye. 

Tommy laughed. “You look like you’re about to get a shot.”

“Shots are quick. Shots would be over already.”

“I won’t hurt you, Felicity.” Tommy pressed his lips to hers until she relaxed in his arms. “You’re mine.”

“You’re getting the short end of the stick, I swear. I’m terrible about leaving my shoes all over the…” Felicity gasped as Tommy sank his teeth into her neck and sucked, hard. He tasted the tang of her blood over the scent gland, and then his entire being was filled with her essence. It was a more final feeling than the nectar—not peace, but victory. Tommy licked the punctures, his saliva instantly healing the wounds, and dragged his mouth down her throat, kissing and nipping his way across her collarbone. He licked the gland on the other side but did not mark her—that was for her first heat. He’d save it. Then he drew back, ready with a speech about how brave she was, how he was proud of her, how sorry he was that they’d had such miscommunication from the very beginning. 

Felicity cried out.

“Are you in pain?” Tommy fisted her hair to see her neck clearly. “It’s supposed to feel good, not—”

Felicity started thrashing in the bed, pushing him away—until Tommy realized she wasn’t trying to kick him out at all. She was trying to strip her leggings off, and everything below the waist was twisted with blankets. 

“Felicity…”

“I’m sorry,” she half-sobbed. “I’m sorry, I need you, I can’t wait, it _aches_. It aches, Tommy, _please_.”


	5. Chapter 5

Felicity could hardly speak. She was glad Tommy didn’t insist on stopping and getting a nice, full, wordy description of everything she was feeling, because words weren’t really possible. Everything was instinct, and all she knew was that if Tommy Merlyn didn’t get his cock inside her _right now_ , she’d leave and find an Alpha who would.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Felicity! Felicity, look at me. Look right here.”

She stopped trying to undress herself with a frustrated whine, and met his eyes with one leg out of her yoga pants and one still trapped in clingy fabric. He didn’t look surprised or alarmed, he looked confident. Like dealing with tweaked out Omegas was something he did for a living.

Tommy chuckled. “No, I don’t do it for a living, but I am council-certified to fuck you until you’re satisfied.”

His cheerful words, combined with his crude language, jolted Felicity off her single-minded-undress-now goal. 

“You’ve seen this before?”

“I have,” he nodded. “I honestly didn’t think marking you would trigger you, since it was a deliberate choice and not made in the middle of lovemaking. I’m sorry, I would have waited. But since we’re here, I am honor-bound to inform you that your Omega dynamic has led you into what we call a drop. Drop can happen in times of stress, anxiety, or transition, resulting in a wide variety of physiological responses, including arousal, if a surge of estrogen and testosterone are pushed into your system. It’s not a true heat, because your temperature is not elevated and you’re not ovulating. However, you will experience sexual desire for an undetermined amount of time, which may result in severe pain unless an Alpha ejaculates inside you.”

“G-d,” Felicity said, “how does you reciting a brochure from the clinic sound like erotica to me?”

“Do I have your consent to prevent the drop through one or more sessions of intercourse that will—”

“Tommy, for fuck’s sake.”

He stared at her, his blue eyes gone dark. “I need a yes or a no, Felicity.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to order you around a fair bit,” he said, his voice light and teasing again. “When you’re feeling more in control, I’ll be happy to let you turn the tables. But for now, take the rest of your clothes off.”

Tommy didn’t push Alpha-command into his voice. He didn’t need to. The suggestion alone was everything Felicity had been trying to do for the last couple of minutes. She finally managed to free herself from her straightjacket leggings and underwear, and scooted closer to him in instinct to find he’d taken off his own clothes, as well. She hadn’t even noticed! _Not fair_ Felicity thought, mourning the loss of getting to see Tommy Merlyn stripping out of his clothes. 

Tommy kneeled before her, completely devoid of shame or self-consciousness, stroking his penis. Felicity’s mouth dropped open a little bit. It wasn’t so much the size that wowed her—though live and in color was certainly a different experience than textbooks—but the texture. It looked hard as rock but the skin was supple, his hand moving up and down towards the swollen, weeping tip. As she watched, a bead of clear moisture dripped down the side of the head, onto his finger. Tommy let go of himself and lifted his hand to her.

“Taste,” he ordered. A ripple of Alpha-command accompanied the word. Felicity let it wash over her; it calmed her and gave her space to think, where the drop would never have let her have that kind of clarity. Did she want to taste? Yes, yes she did. So she’d obey him, out of curiosity. Because he wanted her to. The liquid was salty, strange. Not sweet. She didn’t think she wanted more, exactly, but her mouth watered. How and what and what the hell?

“Lay down,” Tommy said. Felicity did. Her eyes roved over every inch of him, drinking in the hair on his chest and the scar on his left bicep and the lock of hair that fell on his forehead when he braced himself over her. His hand skimmed down her stomach and cupped her between her legs. She arched into him. It was involuntary. She did it again, just to be sure. She ached to be filled, the desire so fierce she felt like all her other senses had left the building.

“What are you waiting for,” she asked, grabbing for his hips. “Get it in there. I’m dying.”

Tommy laughed. “You’re remarkable. Now _calm down_.”

Felicity stilled. The power in the last two words relaxed her hands, made her abdominals unclench. She filled her lungs with air and breathed out slowly. Tommy coached her to breathe like that a few more times, then held her eyes with his as he dipped one finger into the wetness between her legs and traced a line up to her clit. Felicity gasped and dug her fingernails into his shoulder. 

“Just my fingers. Relax. How do you feel?”

“Good,” she breathed. “Don’t stop, please, it’s…it’s…”

“I won’t stop.” Tommy placed a light kiss on her lips and propped his head up with one hand so he could watch her as her orgasm built higher and higher. “Spread your legs.” That command wasn’t laced with power, but she did it anyway. He casually rested one arm over her left knee, holding her open to his gaze. The fingertip circling her clit dipped back down to get more moisture, lingering there each time, pressing down at her opening. Stretching her. When she tensed, he’d return to rubbing the tight bud of pleasure. She closed her eyes and let herself feel the slippery pleasure.

Her new normal apparently involved being naked with a man and feeling completely at ease. _Mating bond,_ her brain reminded her. 

Felicity moaned when Tommy pushed one finger into her tight passage. It felt dry, thick—even though she knew he was covered in her wetness—and she panicked, skipping ahead to the part where his cock would be inside her and she’d explode, obviously, and then die, and then—and then nothing, because her panic subsided a second later, when he withdrew the finger and resumed teasing her clit. The gland in her neck throbbed, a rush of moisture flooded her core, and she snuggled closer to him.  
“  
Again,” Tommy whispered, and delved his finger inside of her. It was welcome this time, and she arched her hips toward him when he found a spot that created all kinds of delicious pressure. He was slow, he was careful. But it wasn’t enough. She needed more. She needed him. Her mate. “I know, I know. All you can feel is the burn. I promise, this will be better for you if you can focus a little bit outside that whirlwind, can you do that for me?”

Felicity watched his lips moving; he was saying something, obviously trying to draw her out of the shaking need the mating bond had caused. With effort, she dragged her gaze up to his eyes. The clear blue pierced through the fog and she gasped.

“There you are.” Tommy smiled. Sun through the clouds. Felicity pushed up and kissed him, using the tricks he’d taught her, the soft slide of lips and tongue that made him groan and roll on top of her, his cock replacing his fingers as he rubbed up and down, coating himself with her arousal. “Stay with me.”

“Not going anywhere,” Felicity said, but didn’t dare look away from him. If she looked away she’d be swept away in feelings that shook her to the core, feelings she couldn’t control or categorize. Feelings that needed another person to complete. This was intimacy deeper than she’d ever imagined. Nations rose and fell over Omegas and Alphas needing each other; she’d been on the edge of it, not even paying attention. Now she was in the melee and would not let go of what was hers.

Tommy held her gaze the entire time he slipped inside of her, stretching her aching flesh, breaching her without any pain at all. Felicity let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and pulled her knees up, experimentally. It didn’t hurt. It felt incredible. 

“It doesn’t have to hurt,” he breathed, seeing the surprise in her eyes. “How’s this?”

“The in and out thing?” Felicity asked, her entire being focused on where they were joined. 

“Yes, that.” Tommy dropped his head to her shoulder and began kissing her neck. 

Every time he touched the healing mate-bite, a rush of pleasure ricocheted from her heart to her toes. She lifted her hips up to meet him, awkwardly trying to find a faster rhythm. She didn’t have words to express the wonderful things his touch did to her, inside and out. The desperate need to have him was fulfilled; something lingered on the edge, but for now all Felicity knew was the surrounding presence of her mate. Tommy scooped one hand under her ass and guided her against him, much slower than she wanted. But he was canting his hips just so, stimulating that bundle of nerves that had never been much use to her. She’d buried it. Buried her true essence under so many layers of synthetic hormones she’d never ever made room for romantic relationships in her life, directing all her energy into her work, fleeing from what she thought would be the worst possible thing ever. 

Her orgasm built slowly, spurred on by Tommy gliding against her in just the right way and the heady pheromones he was releasing as her mate. Felicity shouted in surprise when the pleasure gathered and rushed toward some mysterious peak, but when she exploded, her cry was soundless, her body straining against his, urging Tommy to his own completion. He came seconds after she did, moving hard but slowly. He framed her face in his hands and kissed her, then pushed himself up so he wasn’t crushing her. 

“It’s gone,” she said wonderingly. “That—that need. The worry of it. You made it better.”

“More than better, I hope?” There was a little bit of hesitation in Tommy’s voice. Felicity smiled.

“Really, really good,” she said. “And I had an orgasm!”

Tommy arched one eyebrow.

“Well, that doesn’t happen all the time, right? It’s not a thing, right?”

“Oh, it is so a thing. Want to have another one?”

“What, like right now?” Felicity squeaked as he started kissing his way down her body. “Aren’t you—oh, I guess not.”

Tommy pressed a kiss to her navel and lifted his head. “What don’t you guess?”

Felicity squirmed. “I thought Alphas…knotted inside Omegas. That we’d be stuck together for awhile.”

“Just when I’m in rut,” he explained. “Two or three times a year, unmated. Mated, I don’t know. It will probably happen more frequently as our bodies try to align hormonally. If I hit rut while you’re in heat, well, no birth control in the world can stop a mated couple from conceiving.” Tommy crawled back up beside her and brushed sweaty hair off her face. “I’m sorry I can’t give you more control over that.”

“I do wish we had more control over it,” Felicity admitted. “I know the aliens designed us this way, and I know that kids are like, the most celebrated thing in society, but I never planned…any of this.”

“I know,” Tommy agreed. “I had a plan. The plan involved us dating, some counseling with Omega experts until you felt comfortable with your own biology, and a slow build to the bond to prevent drop. I swear, I had no idea that marking you—without arousing you first—would flip your senses like that. But we will figure it out together, okay? One day at a time, one minute at a time if we have to.” Tommy smiled, his dimple showing. “I didn’t think I’d come home from Prague and bond with you, but here we are.” He dropped a kiss on her mouth. “You were amazing. I can’t…I can’t believe it’s real. That I have a mate. That my mate is you. Now. Come with me into the shower. It’s got four showerheads and a couple of strategically-placed shelves, and I’ll show you what your body can do.”

“Take my new bond out for a spin?” Felicity said, sitting up. She felt their combined juices spilling out of her, but Tommy just grabbed his discarded t-shirt and pressed it between her legs, gently taking care of the mess. Sex was messy. She’d heard that somewhere, or read it, and ignored it. But it was. What else had she ignored, thinking she was going to undergo neurological reassignment eventually? 

“What’s that look for?” Tommy asked. He took her hand and led her into the ensuite. 

“I have a lot of research to do,” Felicity informed him. “I wasn’t really into biological sciences, but I’m a quick study. I’ve got to go on the Omega database and read all the articles in peer review. Do you know how much I don’t know?!”

“No?” Tommy guessed, turning on the shower. Warm steam filled the bathroom and Felicity let him lead her under the shower spray. He started gently massaging her shoulders. “You don’t need to become an expert, Felicity.”

“But I want…” Felicity bit off the end of her sentence. Two things were true: one, she wanted to learn what was expected, what was possible, and what her options were, so she could figure out what she wanted. She wasn’t aiming for top of the field, just the middle. Broad general knowledge of sex. Two, she wanted to please Tommy. Who she barely knew. Who she already loved, because he was smart and kind and was handling this way better than any Alpha should, given her history with the dynamic. 

“What do you want?” Tommy’s voice was low in her ear. He cupped her breasts, his thumbs brushing her nipples. Which, for once, did not start leaking the calming bonding serum, but hardened under his touch. 

“I want to please you, and I want to catch up on what I refused to learn a long time ago about being an Omega. For myself.”

“Works for me.”

Felicity let her head fall back against his shoulder, closed her eyes, and let herself feel.


	6. Chapter 6

The Midnight Vigilante was used to being up at all hours, but usually that involved stopping crime, or sweeping up after crime, or doing recon on crime that hadn’t happened yet. With Felicity Smoak as a mate, Tommy was up at all hours taking care of her. Weaning off suppressants she’d been taking for ten years was hard. Drug addicts had it easier. And when her teeth were chattering because she couldn’t regulate her body temperature and she couldn’t open her eyes because of a blinding migraine, she still managed to type instructions to her team at Palmer Tech without looking at the keyboard. Vomiting nearly every meal—except saltine crackers, and applesauce, and hard candies made with disgusting vegetable juices—didn’t slow her research. Tommy had patiently answered all of her inquiries and shown her as much as her body could take. She hadn’t gone into heat, he hadn’t gone into rut, and they were managing to get to know each other—when she was feeling well enough. Bonding had definitely helped the process some, but Tommy felt bad that they didn’t have a strong enough connection for him to siphon some of the pain away from her. 

Instead, he and Thea kept showing up to their night jobs, trying to keep the city from imploding. It was another way to keep his Omega safe. His de facto sister wanted to meet Felicity, but Felicity begged off meeting anyone until she was steady on her feet. She’d moved in with him, though, without a fuss. Said his bathroom was bigger and there was enough room for her shoes. Tommy loved having her scent all around the loft. He loved coming home to her. He loved getting texts from her in the middle of the day asking to have lunch together. 

He did not love lying to her.

“You’ve got to tell her,” Thea yelled across a rooftop to him as they battled four masked thugs. The men weren’t well-trained, but they were laden with firepower and Tommy and Thea preferred hand-to-hand combat. Or swords. 

“It’s not the right time!” Tommy yelled back, punctuating the sentence with a roundhouse kick to his opponent’s stomach. The man stumbled, Tommy punched him in the jaw, and he went down cold. 

“She told you all her secrets,” Thea protested. She grunted as she took out her two assailants and used one of their own pistols to shoot the last thug in the leg. He was dressed in black from head to toe with no identifying markings on his costume. “I guess I’ll do the interrogation for this scum,” she said to Tommy as the man writhed in pain on the rooftop. “It will be easier than getting _you_ to talk.”

“Location,” Tommy reminded her, breathing hard. “I’ll be on the bike. Text me when you know.”

Thea’s intel led Tommy down to the waterfront. He’d tipped the Squadron first, because of the number of associates the thug claimed were working the off-loading job. He couldn’t take down fifty men by himself, but Captain Lance had an elite squad ready to handle larger jobs. They were a well-oiled machine by this time, even though Tommy felt he wasn’t picking up his end of the burden as much anymore. He wasn’t a puppet at Merlyn Global, he was a real chief operating officer. Now he was an Alpha to a new mate who was going through a rough transition. That was his first priority, no doubt. Felicity still seemed worried about something, and he couldn’t put his finger on it. They didn’t talk about the upcoming Unidac auction, they didn’t talk about Malcolm Merlyn, and they didn’t talk about the very real possibility that there was another person out there who might be the third side of their mated triangle. 

“You need to diversify.” Thea came up silently next to him and watched him watching the Squadron take down a minor drug transport operation. “You’re stretched really thin. You need more help than just me.”

“You want me to advertise for new vigilantes? What, like, experienced thugs only, must have reliable transportation?”

“I know keeping the city safe means a lot to you. It means a lot to me, too. If I didn’t have this outlet, I’d have let Malcolm induct me into the League for sure. But you have a mate now, Tommy. If I was that lucky, I’d ditch it all and go live on the beach somewhere.”

“No you wouldn’t.”

“Okay, I wouldn’t. But I’d take a vacation or something. I’m not saying you should give up being the Midnight Vigilante. You’ve done a lot of good in the city, saved a lot of people. Being the warrior that helps from midnight to sunrise was a good idea when you were single. But you just don’t have time, Tommy. Not like you used to. Eventually, Felicity’s not going to be having these symptoms anymore and she’ll notice that you’re gone at night.”

Tommy sighed. He knew it. But when Felicity was out of her withdrawal fog, they’d have to talk about the herd of elephants in the room. He’d rather give her orgasms to distract her. He was good at that. _She_ was good at that. 

“She’s still having withdrawal symptoms. The night we bonded ripped through the remaining suppressants in her system and she’s still suffering. If she’s better by Friday, I’ll tell her,” Tommy promised Thea as they withdrew into the shadows and made their way back to their transportation. Tommy’s bike, Thea’s untraceable “work” vehicle, a late-model Honda with a bad paint job, safe to park anywhere in the city. 

“What’s Friday?” Thea asked.

“It’s the Unidac auction,” Tommy told his sister. Off her frown, he continued: “Felicity got dark web intel that Malcolm is the puppet master behind the auction. She thinks it’s a sham to eliminate key buyers who want Kord Industry secrets Unidac acquired before they folded. I think it’s far-fetched that Malcolm would care about anything so close to home.”

“He’s not even here, he’s in Nanda Parbat again.” Thea leaned her head out the window of the Honda, her hood pushed back. Dark makeup circled her eyes. “What are you going to do if she cries off, goes to the Squadron?”

“I don’t know,” Tommy admitted. “I think she’ll hear me out, but…we haven’t really bonded. I mean, we’ve _bonded_ and we’re living together, but…there’s something missing.”

“Good luck,” Thea said, and it sounded like ‘good riddance’. 

Tommy rolled his eyes at her grin. Someday his sister would meet her mate and he could give her back all the hell she was giving him. He got on his bike and rode home, stripping his suit off in the garage and quickly changing into his workout clothes. Felicity never went near his gym bag, but he stashed it in the trunk of his car, just in case. Vigilantes weren’t uncommon in medium to larger-sized cities. Squadrons followed the law without exception, and vigilantes picked up the slack. From time to time there’d be someone with a vendetta who didn’t have the common good in mind, but local mobs usually rose up and dealt with players like that. Men and women who stopped rapes and robberies and drug deals were applauded in private and ignored in public, and the world kept turning. Given Felicity’s after-hours computer hacking jobs—which they still hadn’t fully discussed—Tommy didn’t think she would be angry at his chosen mission. 

Then again, he’d never had a mate before. What if she protested that putting himself in danger every night might leave her alone someday? Could he hang up his hood for her? Would she ever ask him to? Already he’d cut the Midnight Vigilante schedule to three nights a week. She worked a corporate job, she knew what late nights meant. But Thea was right. Eventually, she was going to figure it out. 

He had to tell her first, before his brilliant mate figured it out.

“Hi,” Felicity said when he came through the door. She wrapped her arms around him, burying her nose in his neck. Tommy pressed his lips to her bright hair, running a hand down her back. Her spirit felt fragmented to him, which meant she’d spent another night in pain or dizziness.

“I’m all sweaty,” Tommy said. 

Felicity hummed in protest when he tried to pull away.

“Felicity, let me go shower, and then I’ll try out this new foot massage technique I learned. Okay?”

“Okay.” But Felicity followed him upstairs, into the bathroom, and leaned against the wall, watching him while he showered. Tommy turned his back on her and took the shortest shower imaginable. If she wanted to fool around, she’d have gotten under the water with him. Something was on his mate’s mind, and he didn’t know what. 

She followed closely behind as he walked naked to their bed and pulled down the comforter.

“Get in,” he ordered, letting the rich Alpha power slip into his voice. Felicity stifled a sob of relief and Tommy frowned, kicking himself for not trying that right away. She’d been happy to see him but clearly upset or worried about something. He was so careful not to overpower her and let her adjust to being an Omega on her own schedule that he forgot he was the one in charge of making her feel safe. 

So instead of trotting out the cheat sheet for a reflexology foot massage that he’d been eager to try out on her, Tommy arranged the pillows and crawled in, watching her. Her hair was back in a neat ponytail, her glasses magnifying troubled baby blues. 

“What’s going on, Felicity?”

“I’ve been on edge all day,” she half-whispered. “Like I’m coming out of my skin. All I want is to be near you. Is that normal?”

Tommy nodded. “Yes. Were you distracted at work?”

“Yeah, it’s like…it’s like I’m a balloon, floating away.”

“Damn. I’m sorry, that’s my fault.”

Felicity laughed and swatted at him. “How is that your fault? I’m the one who spent ten years wrecking her system with Beta hormones and suppressants.”

“I haven’t been bold enough with you. You need my power, my control, to stabilize you right now, and instead I’ve taken a more cautious approach because you’re not like the other Omega’s I’ve handled at the clinic. I don’t want to do anything to hurt you, do you understand that, Felicity?”

“I do, and I…appreciate that.”

Tommy’s breath hitched. Had she been about to say she loved him for it?

“But I don’t understand why you’ve been cautious. I’ve been reading all about how our bond can grow and provide what we both need. I know you’re not trying to railroad me into doing something I don’t want, so what’s really holding you back?”

 _Tell her_ said Thea’s voice in his head.

“You’re just too good to be true,” Tommy lied. But his smile was real. And so was hers, as she reached out and squeezed his hand. The skin-on-skin contact electrified his senses. Adrenaline from the night’s successful mission returned in spades. He scented her hormone levels, finding only a trace of Beta synthetics, nothing like the usual stream clogging her system. She was coming back to him. Maybe…maybe she just needed a little push. Maybe, if he treated her the way he treated any other Omega who came to the clinic for help, he would be able to push her past the last bit of Beta and into a regular Omega cycle. He might even get her into a pre-heat, or close to it. Once Felicity started to cycle like a normal Omega, she wouldn’t be in pain anymore. At least not because her hormones were going haywire. 

“I’m going to try something, okay?” Tommy asked, rubbing his hands down his thighs. A fold of blanket covered his groin, for now. “I don’t want you to worry if your body temp starts to rise. Trust me to regulate that. I just want you to give in to whatever you feel you should do, including get up and walk away if that feels right. I’m going to trust you, and you’re going to trust me.”

“This sounds like impending orgasms,” Felicity said in her teasing voice. 

Tommy didn’t laugh. He sat up straight, breathing deeply until Felicity caught on and matched his slow, deep breaths. The green chenille throw that she loved slipped down her shoulder, revealing one breast, the nipple taut, her aureole puckered and waiting for his suck. She wasn’t leaking nectar, which was a very good sign. Her body was sensing his, communicating, knowing that her Alpha didn’t need soothing comfort. Tommy’s gaze was unyielding. He willed more than wished that she uncovered her other breast, but Felicity didn’t catch that unspoken desire. That was okay with him. They’d get there. For now, it was enough that she didn’t look away from him. That her focus was completely on him, trusting him to guide her into what they both needed, craved. 

“Felicity, present yourself to your Alpha.”

Felicity swallowed. Tommy waited. He knew she knew what that meant. They’d talked about the scientific articles she’d read, gone over all the ways to strengthen a mating bond. He’d been waiting for her to initiate and she’d been waiting for him to command, and it had driven her crazy. His fault. But not any longer. 

Felicity uncrossed her legs. Her arousal made Tommy’s nostrils flare with appreciation of the scent, but he didn’t praise her or help her. He just watched while she shifted in the blankets, turning her back on him. She stalled, pushing two pillows into the headboard, then scooting away from the edge.

“Felicity,” Tommy growled in warning. She sent him a cheeky grin over her shoulder that made his fists unclench.

Felicity took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Then, she folded her arms in front of her, rested her head on one of her arms, and raised her ass into the air. Tommy’s mouth watered. His Alpha senses sprang to life as his cock became impossibly hard, harder than he ever remembered. 

“You’re beautiful,” he said softly. He reached out and trailed two fingers down her spine, delving into the damp crevice between her legs. He wasn’t surprised anymore to feel the slick area around her anus, though he’d not breached her there. It felt the same as the warm, silky wetness he encountered when he gently fingered her vaginal opening. He massaged the still-tight skin at her entrance, dancing his fingers up to rub her clit. “That’s it, relax. Let me make you feel good.” Tommy nudged her knees farther apart and she sank even further into the cradle of her own arms, arching her back. Her ass was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. Mouthwatering. And because he knew what she needed, and he didn’t want to wait anymore either, Tommy rose up on his knees, gripped her hips firmly, and sank in to the hilt.

Felicity gasped and clenched around him, her mouth open on a wordless cry. Tommy’s mouth was open, too, but in shock—he felt and sensed her orgasming around him, and he’d barely touched her, barely stimulated her. He’d expect that kind of response if he’d been edging her all night, maybe—but hadn’t he been doing almost exactly that, by spending time with her and yet not fully acting in his Alpha role? 

“I’m sorry I took so long to take care of you,” Tommy said as he began thrusting. “It won’t happen again.” He relaxed his grip on her flesh and started stroking her skin, awakening goosebumps on her back and thighs. Felicity had had one orgasm, so he could do what he wanted—slow, steady, relentless build. Presentation position was best if he was in rut and was going to knot her; he wasn’t, but it was a bonding position anyway. He was perfectly angled to hit her G-spot on each inward thrust, and she was vulnerable and relying on him to take care of her pleasure. 

“Help,” Felicity cried out, and then laughed. “It feels…I can’t…”

“Do you want to come again?” Tommy asked, not changing speed. “Do you want your Alpha to come inside you?”

It wasn’t the filthiest thing he’d ever said to a partner, but the flush that covered Felicity’s cheeks tickled him to no end. Tommy grinned. He loved finding out what she liked in bed. 

“Okay.”

Well, he had his marching orders, then. Tommy changed posture, leaning over her so he could reach her clit. He slowed his thrusts so she could concentrate on his fingers circling and flicking the tight, swollen nub, wishing he were two people, wishing that he could fuck her from behind _and_ tongue her from underneath. The image of two people loving her, pleasuring his mate was so vivid Tommy nearly lost control. But he knew that eventually, someday, there would be a third person in the bond—man or woman, he didn’t know and didn’t care, just as long as that person was irrevocably devoted to loving Felicity Smoak, their Omega. 

“Oh, G-d, Tommy…” Felicity almost whined his name. Tommy rubbed her through another orgasm, this one longer than the first, feeling her warm and wet around his cock. 

“Good, oh, yes, that’s so good,” he praised her. He began to thrust harder again, his ass slapping against hers, wet, sucking sounds between them cinching the bond tighter and tighter until he exploded on a long, hard, slow thrust. He emptied himself inside her, tears springing unexpectedly to his eyes when he remembered he wasn’t in rut. That he wouldn’t be giving her a baby. That the wetness trickling from her ass onto his cock meant that somewhere, out in the terribly big world, there was another person waiting to complete what she needed. 

Tommy had just enough presence of mind to grab a towel from the bedside table and tuck it against her before he collapsed on his side, dragging her into his arms to spoon and kiss her neck. Their breathing slowed as it had increased—together, as one, bonding them as mates.

“That was incredible,” Felicity said, scooting closer to him, pulling his arm over her. “I don’t know what I was so worried about. I mean, yeah, it’s super vulnerable but holy shit, I have never come so hard in my life.”

“It’s good for me, too,” Tommy told her. “Seeing my Omega ready to accept me. When I knot you, that will be the most comfortable position for you.”

“Is it true that when you’re in rut, you’ll orgasm just looking at me?”

Tommy laughed. He snuggled closer, pulling the sheet on top of them. “Probably. But when you’re in heat at the same time I’m in rut, you won’t let me waste it. You’ll be so hungry for my cock.”

“A month ago I would have blinked at that information and moved on. Now? I can’t wait. Is that crazy? It’s crazy, right?”

“No, it’s what this life is about, Felicity. Taking care of each other. Repopulating the earth. The Alpha Council promotes kindness and respect because it encourages an environment where intense pleasure can occur. Solid Alpha-Omega pairs help every society on earth, and I am going to spend the rest of my life making sure my Omega is happy. Are you happy?”

“Well, I’m not in pain for once, so that’s a plus.” Felicity paused, stroking his arm hair up and down. “I am happy, Tommy. But I was happy before I met you. How much of this is just the biological imperative?”

“Does it matter?” Tommy asked, his chin on her shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Felicity admitted. She turned in his arms and pressed her lips chastely against his. “But I think I should do a little more hands-on research to find out, don’t you?”

Tommy was laughing when Felicity pushed him onto his back and started grinding on him.

His truth would keep for another day.


	7. Chapter 7

Tommy Merlyn dressed in costume for the Unidac auction. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the costume he wished he had on. The Midnight Vigilante’s costume was leather that let him move unencumbered and silent through the dark streets. His hair was covered in a cap, his eyes covered with a mask. He left no fingerprints, no DNA, no trace, and had plenty of room for weapons. The suit he wore to the Exchange Building cost more than a car, but it was worth it when he saw Felicity’s eyes light up.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, kissing her cheek with formal politeness. They still had not declared their mate status to the Alpha Council, so he couldn’t twine their fingers together and pull her aside to talk privately for the next hour. And he wanted to. He wanted to know how she was feeling, if her last exam results from Anna were fully cleared of Beta synthetics. He wanted to know if she’d finished the FifthGen cyber project she’d mentioned was close to completion, and what she wanted for dinner. As usual, he wanted everything, and had to pretend he didn’t. But he also legitimately wanted to know why Felicity had come to the actual auction site instead of monitoring cyberactivity from a safe and preferably bomb-proof location.

“Are you kidding? I’m not missing this. I want to know who actually shows up to try and buy it.” Felicity’s blue eyes widened behind her glasses. 

“Are you a Squadron affiliate now?” Tommy kept his voice light. 

“No, but I have a vested interest in the world not blowing up. Or getting colder.”

“A vested interest?”

“Mmmhmm,” Felicity said, swaying toward him. “I recently met my mate.”

Tommy was a second away from kissing her, but Henry Smith approached him and he had to be Tommy Merlyn of Merlyn Global, not Tommy Merlyn, mate of Felicity Smoak. There was six minutes of interminable small talk. Then another three minutes with the board members of some tech group from the East coast. Men and women joined and separated into big and little groups until everyone had done their due diligence of networking and small talking and revealing absolutely nothing about their stake in the auction. 

Felicity had skipped the small talk and taken a seat. Tommy was jealous as hell.

He excused himself but couldn’t help himself to another sweep of the interior. The Exchange Building had one large room for the auction. Marble floors, art deco pillars that spanned two stories. The doors to the rest of the building were locked, preventing anyone from entering the areas under reconstruction. There was one wall of glass that looked out onto a small square full of concrete art, and no balconies. Nowhere for a sniper to hide inside the building, at least. One door in, which was guarded, and they would all exit the same way. 

Tommy texted Detective Lance to find out why the Squadron wasn’t acting on the anonymous tip he knew Felicity had sent. Other than two bored guards and one bidder who had his own bodyguard, there was no active security presence. Everything about the auction was boring, except the beautiful lobby. The one reporter in the room had her photographer taking pictures of the restored millwork and historic features and Tommy wondered if the auction was just window dressing for the Exchange Building to attract publicity and therefore, future buyers of the planned retail spaces. It wasn’t a bad business move, but still. He hated that open glass wall. If a sniper was across the street, he could pick off the attendees as they left, one by one.

And his mate was in the building. 

 

Tommy took a seat in the front row, near the left, where he could turn around and grab Felicity—who was sitting directly behind him—and crash through the locked side door if there was a bottleneck at the front. He crossed his legs and plastered a neutral look on his face as the auctioneer started. Divisions and associated intel went piece by piece, until they came to the last section, where a few weapon designs from Kord industry were rumored to be included among the other projects Unidac had failed to launch. Every bidder in the room except for Tommy placed a bid on that lot, driving the price into the hundred millions.

Tommy tapped his program on his leg. He’d underestimated his Omega, _again._ He was moderately worried that the auction would turn into a crime scene, but hadn’t even thought to ask Felicity the most important question: _what kind of weapons are we talking about?_ It was clear that something had happened behind the scenes between Felicity’s initial intel—Malcolm setting up a dozen or so bidders for his own purposes—and the actual event. There were thirty or forty active bidders and a table with beverages and light snacks. It was still dull, but it wasn’t a hush-hush secret auction with every bidder slinking off to the Caymans after. Tommy cursed himself for not pressing Felicity for more information. First and foremost, what kind of hacker was she? She’d made a joke about her vested interest, but did she really have one? The day they met, she’d implied she was a hacker for hire. Or had he just assumed that? He didn’t know.

Oh, damn. He was Alpha-blind, a common malady affecting newly-mated Alphas. Categorization skills were off-kilter, vital information clouded by their mate’s needs. It helped the physical bond but messed up other things. His performance at Merlyn Global wasn’t suffering and his activities as the Midnight Vigilante were still on point, but Felicity wasn’t present for those jobs. Still, it was no excuse for avoiding hard conversations with his wonderful, enigmatic Omega. He knew better than that. 

Tonight, they would talk about everything. 

Everything.

The item went to the representative from Wayne Enterprises, which made Tommy breathe a sigh of relief. Whatever weaponry Unidac had bought from Kord before it folded would be safe in Gotham. Well, relatively speaking. Lucius Fox was a shrewd businessman and not a terrorist. Bruce Wayne had been trained by Ra’s al Ghul, too, but unlike Malcolm, had no desire to be part of the League of Assassins, much less run it. He’d taken the training and left. End of story. As far as Tommy knew, Wayne had never supplied the League with weapons, which made the auction a success. And no one had been shot. 

Tommy turned to Felicity with a smile on his face, ready to ask her to dinner where he would not even come close to uttering the phrase “I told you so” when the glass wall shattered. Tommy grabbed Felicity’s hand and ran to the locked back door, kicking it open so hard the hinges rattled. Behind them, bidders went down by the sniper’s gun—two, three, four clients. The guards died next, their guns drawn to fire back at a sniper who was clearly too far away to be taken down. The auctioneer cowered behind the podium. The bidders who hadn’t run for the front door ran after Tommy and Felicity, down the hallway where another locked door awaited them.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Tommy said as he pulled a gun from his ankle holster and shot the lock on the door that led to the alley. Felicity was pale, her lipstick the only color on her face. She trembled with adrenaline. Tommy felt her fear and regret, but didn’t know if it was for herself or for him. She looked like she wanted to cling to him, too, but she didn’t need comfort. She needed protection and she wouldn’t get it until Tommy had found the sniper.

The other bidders rushed out into the alley, which was empty of everything but van parking and dumpsters. 

“This is nuts!” one of them said. “Is someone trying to kill me over shipping routes in the Gulf?”

“No, you moron, they’re trying to kill whoever got the weapons tech,” said another man. “Did the Wayne E rep get out?”

“Right here,” said a woman with dark hair and glasses. “Where are we going?”

“End of this alley. Turn left and go into the coffee shop. Police are on their way. Stay in the shop.” Tommy speared Felicity with a furious look and sent all the Alpha power he could into the command to obey. Her knees bent with the ripple of power but she remained on her feet, her mouth parting on a surprised “O.”

One of the men coughed, discreetly.

“Put that shit away, Merlyn. It’s broad daylight. Other Omegas are trying to work around here, right?”

“Do not leave the coffee shop until I come for you.” Tommy spoke to Felicity alone. He turned and ran in the opposite direction, not even waiting to see if she obeyed. Of course she would obey. Of course she would not put herself in danger. He hoped.

Tommy counted the bidders over and over again in his mind as he infiltrated the building across the street and headed for the floor where he’d seen a muzzle flash. Felicity’s intel the first day they had met reported that every single bidder was to be killed. Back then, she’d shown him a list of less than a dozen players. There were more than thirty bidders in the room today, and only three had gone down. Kill shots to the head, picked off cleanly and efficiently. Why had the sniper stopped at three? Felicity claimed that Malcolm planned to be the top bidder—using a dummy bidder, since phone bids were not accepted—and wanted to kill the other bidders. Why hadn’t the sniper gotten the rep from Wayne Enterprises? Which person had been Malcolm’s lackey?

Something had not gone according to plan. 

The floor where the sniper had taken the shots was a construction zone of high-end housing that hadn’t been finished yet. Stud walls and flapping poly sheeting created too many shadows. Tommy crept silently across the floor, following the pattern he saw in the dust. The sniper wasn’t dumb—there was no single trail of footprints from the door to the window he’d used. But Tommy knew the difference between construction worker boots and good-to-run-in-vibram soles, and made his way over to the corner where the shots had been fired. He made sure to scuff his own treads as he walked so forensics wouldn’t track his custom Italian shoes. When he got to the corner, he’d look around for evidence and maybe get a jumpstart on the investigation before the Squadron showed up. There probably wouldn’t be anything left, but Tommy would rather have a little something in hand when he confronted Malcolm. 

To Tommy’s surprise, the sniper was packed up and waiting for him, hands up to reveal he was not armed. The sniper known as Deadshot wore blue jeans and a battered brown leather jacket, his chin covered in a light scruff. His weapon had been dismantled and packed into a messenger bag, which was slung low on his left hip. The ballcap he wore completed the look of a grad student. It was a perfect disguise. No dramatic getup, no fancy optics in titanium cases, nothing that would call attention to anything about him.

Tommy would know him anywhere. 

“What…” Tommy could barely form the word. His throat was dry. His heart was racing. The man was a ghost. “Impossible. _Impossible._ ”

“I knew you’d come,” said Deadshot. “Dr. Midnight or whatever, protecting his precious city. Let’s get out of here before we get caught by the Squadron. I have a contract to return.”

Tommy’s wits snapped back into place.

“Who hired you?”

Deadshot spoke as he strode quickly toward a different exit. “Do you even have to ask? Fucking arrogant prick, refuses advice when it’s given by an expert? I told Malcolm this wasn’t going to be the auction he designed it to be. He had arranged it to be less than a dozen players. Someone bypassed his security and opened the auction up to worldwide bidders. As soon as Wayne E got involved, I knew Malcolm wasn’t going to get his hands on that weapons tech. He knew it, too. Changed my instructions, but still wanted me here.”

“You know a lot for a gun-for-hire.” Tommy spoke through clenched teeth as they trotted their way down the back staircase, darting through a residential floor before doubling back and using a fire escape to get to the ground. 

“I’m not a gun-for-hire, I’m a legend. A STARLabs freak of nature. And you don’t get to be a legend by accepting any of that “need to know” bullshit. I know every detail of the job or I’m out, much to certain people’s chagrin.” Deadshot turned calculating blue eyes at Tommy. “Is Amanda Waller messing around in Starling City? If she is, just fucking get out of here, okay? She’s worse than your father. It’s not even a contest.”

Tommy shook his head. He wasn’t going to get into a rant session about ARGUS. “If you knew every detail, why didn’t you finish the job? Why were you waiting for me?”

Deadshot stopped short and Tommy stepped forward into the man’s space, not back. He would never yield to another Alpha when his Omega wasn’t 100% safe. He didn’t care about the familiar face, the impossible, familiar face. His brain was currently telling his heart that this Deadshot character was a Doppelganger, an alien mech of the man he used to know and love. His heart was not buying it.

“I was hired to kill the three bidders I took down, whoever beat out Malcolm’s dummy bidder, and Felicity Smoak. Your so-called mate. The one who fucked up Malcolm’s plans and thus got herself in the middle of a shitstorm she doesn’t even recognize. He suspected she’d show up but wasn’t sure, so if she didn’t come to the auction he hired me to hunt her down. It was an extra line item in the contract.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Tommy asked. His heart raced, his hands trembled. He clenched them into fists.

“Bruce Wayne has me on retainer to never shoot against him, and it was impossible for me to kill Felicity.”

“Why, because she’s my mate? Because somehow you’re sorry you never told your friends and family you were really alive and suffering supernatural consequences from the STARLabs tragedy? Is this penance? Because it’s not enough. It’s never going to be enough. Just because you spared my mate—”

“I didn’t spare her because she’s your mate! I spared her because she’s _mine_!”

Tommy couldn’t speak. Or move. He was frozen to the spot. The man calling himself Deadshot made his face into a hard mask. 

“When I saw her through the crosshairs, I knew. She’s _my_ mate. I don’t know what kind of sick agreement you have, and I don’t care. It’s dangerous to pretend to be mated, so whatever reason you’ve got, you can just go ahead and undo it. If Malcolm forced you into it I will take care of him, too. I don’t fucking care, Tommy. She’s mine, and I will stop at nothing to be with her and keep her safe.”

Deadshot produced a gun out of his coat pocket and pressed it against Tommy’s heart. His eyes blazed.

“I will only say this one time. You stay away from Felicity Smoak, or I will kill you. And you will never see it coming.”

Tommy knew a dozen ways to disarm the situation, a dozen maneuvers. Instead, he froze. He raised his hands. He tried to project Felicity’s bond, her scent, anything to get the other Alpha to listen.

“Oliver, wait. Just listen to me, please. It’s not what you think. She’s special, she’s different—”

Oliver squeezed the trigger and shot Tommy in the chest.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to write these specific tags in the initial summary because it would give it away! So, here are new tags: Oliver Queen (character), Oliver Queen is Deadshot, Tommy Merlyn/Felicity Smoak/Oliver Queen (relationship), Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak (relationship) Despite having hinted at it since Ch. 1 (if you look closely), this is going to be an OT3 fic. I am not offended if anyone wants to jump ship! Otherwise keep reading to see if Tommy was wearing body armor underneath his suit or not. :)

Felicity waited her turn in the “give us your statement” line, which was being held in a corner of the coffee shop. Three Squadron cops cordoned off the interview area and the witnesses gave their statements one after the other. It was standard procedure if Omegas were in the group of witnesses—a public, well-lit, coffee-and-cinnamon scented familiar watering hole was less anxiety-producing than the white-walled honesty of the Squadron facility. She didn’t even have to raise her hand, because two other Omegas identified themselves. Two Alpha Squadron leaders stepped forward in case anyone’s body chemistry dropped from the adrenaline of facing a trauma, but Felicity wasn’t worried about that. 

She was worried that Tommy hadn’t come back yet.

Felicity lied her way through her statement, echoing the words and in some cases, the phrases used by the other witnesses. She didn’t lie about how Tommy Merlyn had led them all to safety. It felt nice to brag about him.

“And then what, he just took off?” asked the Detective. He turned around to verify that Tommy Merlyn wasn’t waiting his turn in line. 

Felicity shrugged. She honestly had no idea why Tommy wasn’t holding her hand right now, stroking her hair, whispering sweet, sarcastic comments about the Squadron to get her mind off the event for a moment. She needed physical contact with him not just to replace the sights and sounds of what had happened at the auction, but to tell her that everything was going to be okay. Her instincts had been right to break through Malcolm Merlyn’s lame-ass encryption program and open the Unidac auction up to other buyers, because the sale had _not_ gone to Merlyn’s dummy bidder, it had gone to the representative from Wayne Enterprises. However, she’d put two dozen more people in the crosshairs of the killer who’d opened fire, and that was making her coffee churn in her belly. 

“You look peaky,” the Detective said. Felicity pressed her lips together.

“I’m fine. Am I done?”

“Yes. Your second questioning will take place tomorrow down at the station. Call this number for an arrival time.”

Felicity stilled. A second questioning? It made sense, of course. Right now, everyone teetered on the edge of shock. With food and rest, more details would pop up to help the Squadron in their investigation. Three bidders were dead and two guards, maybe, too. Five murders, five direct hits. She nodded, squeezing her dry hands around her to-go cup.

“I’m an Omega,” she said softly. It was the first time she’d said it out loud, in public. Nothing happened, despite her shaking hands and wildly beating heart. No one popped out of the woodwork to kidnap her and see that she followed in her mother’s footsteps. She took a deep breath, wishing she was scenting her mate instead of the hormone soup in the coffee shop. “Will you please put that on the chart?”

“Of course. When you call tomorrow morning for an arrival time, just tell dispatch if you want to come in or if you want us to send a Squadron cop to you. Whatever you prefer.”

“Thank you.” 

“Is your Alpha here?” the Detective asked.

Felicity shook her head. _Where was Tommy?_ She assumed he had run away to locate his father. She didn’t like being right about Malcolm Merlyn, but, well, she usually was right. Everyone wanted the weapons tech because it promised a new twist on detonation—very small, very portable, very deadly. In the hands of a scientist, it could be sunk deep into the ocean to drill for deposits of alien energy, which is what she assumed Wayne E would use it for. Even a dozen freed-up reserves would help solidify the climate and help the whole world survive. In the hands of an army, it could kill millions. 

The thought of a doomsday weapon didn’t really worry her. Omegas in the world usually had psychic predictions that wrecked large-scale plots before they ever got off the ground. What worried her now was that Tommy wasn’t back, and she felt like he was in danger. Hurt. Scared, or—or failing, somehow. She closed her eyes, seeing if she could find some kind of mate-connection to him, but they hadn’t really practiced that. Thought-sharing, Mind-calling—those gifts usually didn’t present until after the first mated heat or rut. While they’d had a lot of fun exploring one another, it hadn’t come with any mate-gift. Not yet. All she had was a dark foreboding that she couldn’t verbalize, especially not to the Squadron Detective. And where was Detective Lance? She’d sent the tip to his office specifically, because he was the one who always showed up to help the Midnight Vigilante, so she figured he would want to know if some shady stuff was going on in his city ahead of time. 

Suddenly, Felicity smelled Alpha. Worried, hurting, frantic Alpha. She was on her feet just as the front door bell chimed. Blindly, she pushed through the wall of Squadron cops as every cell in her body yearned and strained to be matched with that perfect, possessive scent.

“ _Felicity_.” 

The Alpha called her name and Felicity stumbled, gasping for breath. That wasn’t Tommy’s voice. She put her hands out, expecting to fall on the floor—tripping someone with a full tray of coffee, no doubt—but her palms smacked against a hard, broad chest. She lifted her head, panicked, wanting to scream out for Tommy. But the man who held her eyes in an unyielding stare smelled like home. He smelled like light and truth and ease. His touched soothed her, calmed her racing heart. He was slightly taller than Tommy, and built like a warrior—powerful arms, perfect posture, and a situational awareness she didn’t expect he could have while seeming wholly focused on her. The scruff on his face and the ballcap pegged him as a grad student or something; the worn, leather cross-body satchel made her think maybe he was an engineer in one of those energy-green startups where people brought their dogs to work. But his trousers were thick canvas with cargo pockets and he wore scuffed boots, like a carpenter or electrician. Who was he?! He wasn’t an untried youth—he was a man, and his blue eyes were the oldest she’d ever seen. Felicity swayed towards him, tilting her face up automatically for a kiss that never came. This man, her Alpha— _her second mate_ \--had been through hell. And as Felicity breathed him in, centering herself in the essence of his soul, a startling thought broke across her mind: he was still in hell. The tears that spilled from her eyes were gently wiped away by a rough, callused thumb.

“Is this your Alpha?”

Felicity turned her head, with effort. The Squadron Detective stood protectively nearby, a female cop shadowing him, her hand on her comm device. 

“Yes,” Felicity heard herself say. “This is my mate.”

The stranger’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. He pulled Felicity into a strong embrace, pressing his lips to the top of her head, cradling her carefully. Up close, he smelled like leather and hot metal. She burrowed her nose into his neck and managed a tiny smile. She thought it would be years before she met her second partner, but here he was, alive and whole and surrounding her with waves of love and safety. 

Anna would die of shock right now if she saw how easily Felicity was accepting him. _Nice to not have Beta synthetics and decades of fear clouding my judgment,_ Felicity thought. Her actions surprised her, too, but not as much as she expected. After all, she was nothing if not doggedly determined to follow the right course of action, whether that was coding or creating new inventions with PalmerTech to help the world. And locking eyes with this stranger, winding her arms around his waist, shifting into the space he made for her with his wide stance and strong arms, was right.

She only hoped this man would understand her unique situation and accept the fact that she had a second, equally important mate in her life. _Tommy_ her heart cried. _Where are you?!_

“You didn’t mention you had a mate,” the Detective said.

“We haven’t declared yet,” Felicity said, turning back to the stranger. “It’s very new and very complicated.”

The stranger’s brows rose.

“The Alpha Council will decide what’s complicated,” the Detective huffed. “You better get your union registered. What’s your name, son?”

The stranger turned to the Detective and speared him with a look that reprimanded the man’s use of the word “son.” 

“My name is Oliver Queen.”

Felicity flinched, but the man who held her tightened his grip. Oliver Queen was _dead._ Tommy’s childhood friend—the one he loved, the one he still grieved—had died in the explosion of STARLabs particle accelerator in Central City five years before. His mother had died giving birth to Thea, and his father, Robert Queen, had a heart attack when he’d heard the news about Oliver, leaving Thea alone as an orphan. This man couldn’t be Oliver Queen. That wasn’t possible. 

“Yeah, that’s complicated all right,” the Detective said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought I recognized you. Where’ve you been? Does your family know you’re back?”

“I’m taking my mate home, now, Detective. If you want to interview her further, you can do so at her convenience.”

Felicity let her new Alpha strong-arm her out of the coffee shop. She totally would have given the Detective that kind of attitude—okay, or some sass, at least—if she hadn’t been so worried about Tommy. Probably. 

“Oliver,” she said, and licked her lips. His name tasted right. “I know you don’t know me, but—”

“I know you,” he said, his voice a low rasp that made her heart skip a beat. “You’re mine.”

“Yes, right, okay.” Felicity skipped a little to keep up with his rapid pace down the block to a sleek, black sports bike with no decoration—no racing stripes, very little chrome. He handed her his helmet and she took it, then hid it behind her back. “Listen to me,” she begged. “I know this is going to sound like some overly dramatic plot but I swear every word is true. I have two Alpha mates. _Two._ It’s rare but sanctioned and I just found him. And I wasn’t expecting him _or_ you to show up in my life, much less that the two of you would know each other, but that’s how the aliens manipulate things, isn’t it? Tommy Merlyn. Tommy Merlyn is my Alpha mate. We’ve bonded, see?” Felicity tilted her head so Oliver could see the pink scar on her neck. “I’ve got a medical condition that—”

“Enough. I believe you. The scent is accurate.” Oliver’s voice was firm, but not unkind. “We need to go. Now.”

He slung his leg over the bike. Felicity watched that smooth, beautiful move and the ass that was attached to it and nearly dropped the helmet. Oliver held out a hand for her to mount the bike behind him. 

“Felicity, put on the helmet.”

Alpha power broke over her in a wave. She obeyed and climbed on, trembling as she wrapped her arms around Oliver’s waist. The helmet was rich with his scent. It made her happy—deliriously happy, which made no sense that she’d feel that while Tommy was still missing, still…hurting? Or, lost? She closed her eyes and snuggled into Oliver’s back, feeling nothing but the revving of the bike, breathing him in, feeling the clench of muscles along his core as he subtly shifted into the curves of the bike. Who _was_ he? So many questions. Where had he been for five years? How did he know where she was, had he been following her scent across the world? If she hadn’t been stuffing her system full of Beta suppressants, would he have found her sooner? She wanted him. Wanted him stretched out along her body, holding her close, nothing between them. And she wanted Tommy there, too. _This is how it starts,_ said a warning bell in her mind. _You get two mates and they breed you and sell the offspring to the highest bidder. You’re a freakshow. A commodity. And the Midwife will find you. And you will never see them again._

“Stop it,” Oliver called over his shoulder. He slowed the bike, then stopped. He turned around and roughly flipped up the visor on her helmet. “I can’t hear you, but I can…feel you.” He shook his head, as if to clear the incredible truth of that reality. “I can feel you,” he repeated firmly. “Whatever the hell you’re thinking, stop it right now. I know you’re scared, Felicity, but I promise you, no one is going to hurt you. You’re safe. I will keep you safe.”

Oliver closed her visor without waiting for a response and zoomed away from the curb, trusting her to hold on. She did. His promise hadn’t erased her fears, but it had shut them up. She’d heard stories of Alphas protecting Omegas from fires, gunshots, avalanches, hell, even stressful holiday dinners. It’s what they did. It’s who they were. And now she had two Alphas willing to put their lives on the line for her.

She should probably tell them the truth. If they really knew what they were up against…

_If they knew what they were up against, they’d leave you in a heartbeat._

Oliver sensed the fear spike in her again and growled, but didn’t stop the bike this time. 

It surprised her to end up at the hospital.

“What are we doing here?” she asked when Oliver took the helmet from her. “I don’t need to be checked out, I didn’t even scrape a knee. I swear to you, I do not need to be seen by a doctor. That’s not what I meant when I said I had a medical condition. Would you just listen to me?!”

“Listen to _me,_ ” he countered, framing her face with his hands. “Tommy was shot in the chest. He’s in critical condition.”

Felicity’s mouth dropped. She sucked in a breath of cold air.

“What? How? _What?!_ ”

“I shot him,” Oliver said simply. “I had to. I’m sorry, I will explain later. Also, the guards are not dead. They wore Kevlar vests and went down, but didn’t die.”

“And the three other men?” Felicity could barely get the words out.

“Gone. Fast as I could,” Oliver said. He didn’t lie and didn’t apologize.

“Were they…criminals, maybe…”

Oliver shook his head. “I’m a hired assassin, Felicity.”

“You’re Deadshot.” 

“Yes.” Oliver swallowed hard. Felicity thought his eyes were a little red, but it couldn’t be tears—a man this tough wouldn’t fall to bits over a simple thing like finding his mate, confessing he was a contract killer and an underworld-famous metahuman freak, and that he’d shot his former best friend.

“Oh, Oliver.” Felicity didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—absolve him. But he was _hers_ in every way that mattered. Her mouth went dry, but she swayed toward him, needing the comfort of his touch. Her Alpha. A murderer.

And she wanted him anyway.

“You need to go in there,” he told her, his breath coming out in puffs of steam. “Hurry up, it’s cold.”

“Where are you going?” Felicity asked, squeezing his hand. He squeezed back.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he said quietly. “Maybe I already have. But if there’s any chance, I…” Oliver shook his head. “I can’t be with you as Deadshot. In order to be Oliver Queen again, I need to see my sister.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Felicity whispered. 

“Say you’ll wait for me,” Oliver begged. “Trust me long enough to tell my story.”

Felicity searched his face. Felt his devotion. Smelled his rich, powerful mate scent that surrounded her and protected her from every other possible distraction in the hospital parking lot. He raised one hand to her shoulder and gently stroked the unmarked side of her neck. His trembling fingers made the decision for her.

“I won’t tell anyone,” she promised. “Come to me as soon as you can. And I mean tonight, Oliver, not a few months from now when you’ve figured out a good cover story. I’m going to be with Tommy, in this hospital, and I want both my mates. I need them both. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Oliver stepped away, with effort, and Felicity turned her back on him and ran through the doors to the Emergency Department.

###  
As soon as Tommy was out of the ICU, Felicity climbed into bed with him. She snuggled close, being careful of the wires and the bandages and the sickly sweet smell of betadyne still dripping down his ribcage. They’d used alien tech to reconstruct his heart after the bullet had shredded the left atria. Half-medicine, half-magic. People said that a recon-heart was stronger and more effective than nature’s best efforts, but the Health Council forbid people to go in for “cosmetic heart surgery.” Felicity knew the procedure. It was one of Anna Palmer’s open-patents, after all. Still, the sight of Tommy unconscious and covered in bandages gave her the shakes. 

“Felicity,” Tommy murmured, turning his head to the side she pressed against. The side rail of his bed pressed against her spine. “Love you.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered. “You got shot.”

“Mmm,” he agreed. “Sorry.”

“Oliver did it on purpose,” Felicity said. “He came for me, Tommy. He confessed. And he’s my mate.”

“I know, honey. I found him across the street after. He was waiting for me. You were on the kill list.”

“I was?” Felicity shifted against Tommy, feeling her breasts fill with nectar. “He didn’t mention that.”

“Malcolm hired him. Maybe ARGUS. Or maybe both. Can’t figure,” Tommy said, his eyes still closed. “Did he mark you?”

“Not yet. His scent is _right_ , though. I’m sorry, Tommy, I don’t even…I don’t even know what to say.”

“It’s okay, Felicity. We’ll figure it out.”

“How are we going to figure it out?” Felicity kept her voice as low as she could. She didn’t know what kind of security a private room had, but she was sure there was at least video surveillance, so she turned her lips into his shoulder as she spoke. “He’s a killer, and he’s been in hiding, and if people like your father are hiring him…I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Tommy laughed, and then groaned. “That’s my line. And I’m already hurt.”

“Turn your head,” Felicity whispered. With great effort, she tugged the top of her dress down and threw a blanket over herself. “It’s comfort, right?”

“It’s heaven,” Tommy answered, and lowered his head to her breast. Felicity closed her eyes and felt the tug of his lips and tongue sucking the bonding serum from her breast. She swore color returned to his cheeks after he finished the first side. She shifted and made sure he drained the other side, too, hoping that Oliver would be just as kind as Tommy about how little control she had over when her body decided it needed to produce Omega nectar. She’d heard tales of Alphas who were disgusted by it. She figured she got lucky with Tommy being so understanding. Would Oliver be as understanding? Or would he be so disturbed by the accident that had changed his life that he’d be wary of the hormones that had changed hers?

The shift nurse knocked discreetly on the door just as Felicity had pulled her dress back into place. 

“Awake and lucid, I see,” she said cheerfully when Tommy told her to get out. “I’m going to take your vitals, Mr. Merlyn, and then you can be alone with your Omega. Mated?”

“Yes,” Felicity said proudly. “We’ll be formally declaring soon.”

“Congratulations. Oh, he’s made rapid improvement since you arrived, Miss Smoak. I need you to wait before bringing him to orgasm until the doctor verifies heart response and activity two days post-op.”

“Jesus,” Tommy muttered. Felicity laughed.

“ _You_ don’t have to abstain, though,” the nurse said, gesturing to Felicity. “In fact, if you’re satisfied, it will calm your Alpha down and speed up his healing. This door will not lock, for security reasons, but I will put a DND on the handle.”

“Do not disturb?” Felicity asked. The nurse nodded. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We prefer our Alpha and Omega patients to bond with their mates in recovery. It speeds healing more than any other method. We recommend it for non-mated pairs as well, but find the best results with mates. I’m just going to extend the bed for you, okay?”

“It extends?” Felicity gladly got up, ignoring Tommy’s soft noise of protest. “Thank G-d, that rail was digging into my back.”

The nurse efficiently adjusted Tommy’s single bed to a full-size, changed the sheets, put a new warming blanket on him, helped him use the bedpan, ignored his groaning about how it felt to stand up after post-op, and resettled him with all his wires on one side so Felicity could take the other side. Then she left, and Tommy had his eyes closed before the door shut. 

“That was hard work,” Felicity whispered, stroking the dark hair off his forehead. “All that standing up. Just exhausting.”

“Shot in the heart, babe,” he muttered, seeking her warmth. She rested her head on his shoulder. 

“I wish Oliver were here to explain,” Felicity said.

“Ngh,” Tommy argued. “No, I wanna be awake for that. Sleep now.”

“What the hell were you doing, going after the shooter anyway? Did you see Detective Lance outside? I didn’t see him anywhere.”

“Felicity, I was doing a tour of the perimeter.”

“Yeah, I figured it was some primal Alpha-protection thing, but you’re a businessman, not a vigilante. Next time we’re in a crisis, don’t leave me, okay?”

Tommy was silent for so long Felicity thought he’d fallen asleep.

“Okay,” he said finally. 

“Good.” Felicity snuggled close enough to hear his new heart beating. “Oh, gosh, do you think your father will show up here? A sign on the door isn’t going to stop him.”

“He was already here,” Tommy said. “Before you came. While I was still in ICU, he came to see me. All smiles, all promises. Tons of guilt. If I wasn’t doped up and immobile I would have killed him.”

“Tommy, he’s your father.”

“He ordered your death,” Tommy said, opening his eyes and piercing her with the most lucid look she’d seen so far. “He knew you were my mate—and trust me, he’s wanted nothing but a mate for me since I presented as an Alpha—and he still ordered you to be killed. If Oliver wasn’t your mate, you’d be dead right now. So forgive me if I put my allegiance where it belongs.”

“Okay, Tommy.” Felicity pulled the covers up to her shoulders and rested one hand on his belly, away from the bandages covering most of his chest. 

“You’re staying.”

“I’m staying,” she assured him. “I texted Anna to bring me some things so I don’t have to leave you. You’ll have a quicker recovery if I stay, remember?”

“I’ll have a quicker recovery if you’re satisfied, remember?” Tommy countered, running his hand down her side. Then his eyes fluttered shut and his breathing evened out.

“I’m satisfied, Tommy,” Felicity whispered. “I had no idea how satisfied I would be.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, please refer to chapter notes on Ch. 8 for additional pairings and characters. From this point forward, this story features a relationship between Felicity and two male partners. If that is not your thing, feel free to not continue reading! I promise it has a HEA.

Felicity awoke to fingertips trailing softly down her cheek. 

“Shh, it’s Oliver.”

Felicity raised herself up on her elbow to look at Tommy—sleeping in a painkiller fog—and then gently eased herself out of bed. Tommy didn’t stir. She stretched, yawning, and then felt Oliver’s arms come around her waist. She stilled, her arms only halfway extended.

“I’m just stretching,” she whispered.

“I thought you were reaching for me,” Oliver said, his hands fisting in the hem of the t-shirt Anna had brought her.

It was the most awkward silence she’d ever experienced. In the dim light, he looked haunted and tired, not at all brimming with the same awe and wonder he’d had in the coffee shop the first time they’d touched. Tommy would have asked first, before hugging her. Oliver just swooped in and took. He didn’t step away, blushing and bashful. Instead, he tugged her hips closer and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. Felicity felt desire awaken in her heart, her core. _Now_ she was awake, and right where she belonged, safe in her Alpha’s arms. She turned back to the bed, confused—she’d been safe there, too. Two places at once. It didn’t make sense yet.

“How did it go with Thea?” Felicity asked. 

“She’s hurt. Mad. Scared I’ll end up in prison the rest of my life.”

“Me too.”

Oliver swallowed. His eyes flicked to the surveillance camera in the ceiling and he finally let go of her and retreated to the chair in the corner. Felicity perched on the edge, resting her hand on his shoulder for balance. 

“Can’t tell you everything here,” he said, his head pointed towards his lap so the camera wouldn’t record his lips moving. “When does Tommy get out?”

“Tomorrow, maybe the day after. He’s going to be fine, by the way, thanks for asking.”

“I told you, I had to shoot him.”

“Oliver…”

“Not here.” He ran sweaty palms down his thighs. “Not now.”

“Do you at least have a cover story?”

“My cover story is the truth. I suffered a traumatic brain injury from the particle accelerator explosion and was re-learning how to live my life. When I heard about my best friend being shot, I couldn’t bear to stay away any longer. Imagine my surprise to find I was sharing a mate with him. It’s more than I ever dreamed.”

Oliver was using a fake voice, a voice for nurses and reporters and Squadron cops. But underneath it all, Felicity knew it was true. His brain would have been adversely affected by the supernatural pulse that had created so many metahumans. But one giant part was missing—the part where he took his newfound ability and used it to become a sniper for hire. 

“There aren’t many triads in Starling City. The Alpha Council is going to scrutinize us all to make sure the bond is real.”

“They’ll have to wait,” Oliver said in a low, rough voice, the one he’d used on the motorcycle that had turned her insides to jelly. “I’m not going to take you in a hospital room with Tommy sleeping two feet away.”

“You’ll have to get used to being with me in front of Tommy,” Felicity said nervously. “I know you bond with me, not with him, but I don’t want to alternate bedrooms or houses, I want us all to be together. Can’t we all be together?”

“Hey, shh, that’s not what I meant.” Oliver reached up and smoothed her hair behind her ear. She leaned into his touch. “I meant, we’re on camera and he’s basically unconscious. I’d like to at least talk to him, explain everything, get some ground rules or…or at least some vague limits before I…before we….”

“Oh. Right.” Felicity bit her lip. Of course. Decent thing to do. 

Her thoughts were not decent at all.

“What?” Oliver asked, frowning.

“I want you,” Felicity confessed. “You killed those men right in front of me and I still want you. I want you _so badly.”_ She pressed cold fingers to her eyes. “I’m a horrible person. It’s my fault they were there in the first place—I hacked the Unidac site, opened the bidding nationwide. I didn’t want Malcolm Merlyn to get his hands on weapons tech that dangerous—I think he’s working for a terrorist organization—so I made sure his initial plans were ruined, but those people, all scared because of you, all there because of me…”

“Felicity, slow down. Look at me. Breathe. _Breathe._ ” The last command was full of Alpha power. Felicity filled her lungs. 

“I don’t even know you!” she said, much louder than a whisper. Horrified, she looked at Tommy. Who was still dead asleep. His heart monitor proved he wasn’t faking it, but she lowered her voice again anyway. “I wish my focus were split,” Felicity told her new mate. “I wish I could turn off my desire for one of you and focus it on the other. But I can’t. I can’t turn it off like I can’t stop breathing. Before today, something was missing. Now you’re here, and I feel complete. And _absolutely wretched._ ”

Oliver sighed. “Come here.” He tugged her off the edge of the chair and into his lap, where Felicity gratefully buried her nose in his neck and let the pheromones of his mating gland calm her down. 

“I’m scared,” she whispered. 

“So am I,” Oliver whispered back. His lips brushed her forehead. “My world turned upside down today. I have never been so happy. That’s not something I thought I’d ever feel again. The timing, though…” his laugh was soft, but full of bitterness. “It is my honor, my absolute honor, to love and protect my chosen Omega, but I don’t even know if I can handle a couple of questionnaires from the local Alpha Council, much less being part of a triad. There’s so much at stake. And Thea, and Tommy…I don’t want to lose you. Any of you.”

Felicity licked the side of his neck.

Oliver sucked in a sharp breath. “Felicity.”

“You taste good,” she told him. “You’re lucky I’ve been mated for awhile. When I first met Tommy, I wouldn’t even go near him.”

“Why not?”

“I intended to go for neurological reassignment,” Felicity told him. Instinctively, his arms banded around her. “I know—but I’d been masking my dynamic and living as a Beta since college with no mate in sight. It made sense to make that permanent, but the universe had other ideas. When I finally accepted it, I was afraid of every feeling I had. Tommy showed me not to be afraid.”

“Good.” Oliver took her hands in his and rubbed small circles on the insides of her wrists. The mating glands there were smaller, but just as potent. “Concentrate on this, okay? And—and for the sake of the camera, please don’t lick me again.”

“But what if this is all we ever have? What if the Squadron finds you and puts you away?” Felicity whispered against his skin. “What if I really want to?” 

Oliver swore and looked at the camera. Then he tugged and shoved his way out of his brown leather jacket and draped it across his lap, covering her hips. Her legs hung over the chair, her feet bare. For a moment she wished she were still wearing the dress from earlier, instead of the yoga leggings she’d changed into, but then she felt Oliver’s large, warm hand cupping her between her legs and nothing mattered anymore except his touch.

“You’re so warm,” he whispered in her ear. “Put your head down on my shoulder—suck my neck, that’s it. It’s dark enough in here, right? It’s got to be. Fuck. Let me—there.”

Oliver fit his hand down the front of her stretchy pants and slid two fingers down the front of her sex, gliding easily through the moisture there. He curled his fingers inside of her, but the fabric was too restricted to piston in and out in the rough, fast way she thought she needed. Instead he stroked around the swollen flesh, learning her by feel, stretching her opening while his thumb slid across her clit. He circled the bud as she sucked on the mating gland in his neck. Her mouth was watering an embarrassing amount. 

“Let your canines drop, Felicity. Mark me.”

No matter how many times she had willed her Omega-canines to descend and give back the mark Tommy had given her, she couldn’t do it. He’d said that a lot of Omegas couldn’t drop their bite until their first heat, so he wasn’t too concerned, but now—here—with Oliver, Felicity ached to be able to give him what he asked for. Oliver murmured softly to her when she scraped him with blunt teeth, reassuring her, plunging his fingers as deep as he could go. She spread her legs and arched into his touch, into the pump and glide of his hand. Her orgasm built slowly enough that she had time to savor it—the climb, the peak, the explosion that made her scream soundlessly against Oliver’s neck until the pleasure subsided. She breathed heavily, her whole body limp and curling into his. His lungs heaved with exertion as he stroked the damp hair away from her face. He carefully eased his hand out of her pants, sucking her juices off his fingers without a care for the security camera. His moan of pleasure seemed extra loud in the quiet of the room, especially since she’d worked so hard not to make any noise. Their mating pheromones swathed them both in a fierce, solid bond. Felicity felt pleased that her Alpha had given her what she needed, even though she probably should have tried a little harder not to need his touch so much, so soon, but that’s what was supposed to happen, so she tried to squash the guilt. You find your mate, and then you touch each other. You bond. Your souls connected, your biology synched up, and eventually and inevitably you would help repopulate the planet. It didn’t feel as strange with Oliver—even given his disturbing career—as it did with Tommy, _because_ of Tommy. If he hadn’t been so patient with her, if hadn’t refused to give up on her, she might have run from Oliver, or fought him, or worse—the Beta drugs could have permanently damaged her, and she’d never have met either of her mates.

“You’re so beautiful,” Oliver whispered.

Felicity curled up as closely as she dared and gave herself over to the rightness of the moment. Their bond was sensual, but after her orgasm, felt slow and rhythmic more than frenzied and arousing. It was a building connection, a steady emotion. Fortunately for their reputation, her mind veered away from sex and back to the Unidac auction. 

“Glass broke. The shots were loud. Why so loud?”

“It’s a .338 magnum cartridge. You’re going to hear the boom a mile away.”

“I mean, in my head. Why is it still so loud?”

“Oh. Sorry. That’s probably me.” Oliver dropped her wrists and danced his fingers up her arms. One hand cupped her chin, lifted it. “I’ve learned my brain is a little…different, after the STARLabs explosion. I’m probably projecting. I don’t mean to, Felicity. Tell me something else, something not about the auction. Tell me about Tommy.”

“He’s COO of Merlyn Global. His dad is a dick. If I never see him again, it’s too soon. But Tommy is funny, kind, never socially awkward. Smart, respectful, hotter than hell. He has the balancing act down—perfect brother, perfect businessman, perfect Alpha. It’s all I can do to juggle a dozen projects in Applied Sciences…and, yeah, okay, a little after-hours hacking, but just to keep my hand in.” Felicity paused, considering. “I think…I think that despite pretending to be a Beta, my Omega dynamic led me to spy and hack the areas I did. I never thought I’d have any prophetic or psychic ability, but I cannot tell you why I suddenly started to research Unidac’s bankruptcy. Now I’d place a wager that I was steered there on purpose, to help me find my mate. Ss. Mate _s_. Tommy is amazing.”

“You don’t seem too disturbed about his extra-curriculars.”

Felicity blushed. “He’s not serving Omegas at his mom’s Memorial Clinic anymore. That’s another reason we need to approach the Alpha Council soon—Tommy really did just remove his name from the on-call list, no reasons given. And when I was coming off the tailored suppressants I was pretty sick, so probably he hasn’t had time to smooth the ruffled feathers, so—”

“I don’t mean the clinic, Felicity. I mean how he’s the Midnight Vigilante. You’re twisted up in knots about my involvement on the dark side of the law, so tell me how you reconcile his?” Oliver bit his lip. “I know that meeting me—being with me—is very new. And I’m not bitter, I swear. I’d really like to know how you compartmentalize.”

Felicity removed herself from Oliver’s lap. The room felt suddenly chilled. The heat that had been rising since Oliver had touched her shrank back inside her and hid itself away. Breathing heavily, she looked at Tommy, who still lay perfectly still in the hospital bed, his lips slightly parted in sleep. Long, dark lashes touched his cheeks. She focused on the tiny, silver scar on his left cheek that she’d never asked him about, then thought about all the other scars he had. Big ones. Bruises, too, fading and new; he said it was a kickboxing class at his gym. She’d believed him.

She’d believed everything.

“You didn’t know,” Oliver breathed. “Felicity, I—I’m so sorry, I thought…I thought that as his mate, you were helping him. Your skills with a computer, or…oh my God. Oh God, Felicity—”

Felicity looked back at Oliver, whose eyes were haunted. For a brief second she thought he might have dropped that bombshell on purpose, manipulating her, trying to make her choose sides, but regret pulsed out of him nearly so much she could taste it. Why didn’t Tommy project emotion like that? _No._ She took a deep breath—their combined scents were everything she wanted and needed to survive. 

Not fair.

“I’m going home now,” she said to the black space between Oliver’s chair and Tommy’s bed. “Leave me alone.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A longer chapter--lots of answers! I grabbed a couple of canon bits and shoved them together. I hope it is a creative mix!

Tommy woke to daylight streaming through slits in the closed blinds and Oliver sitting on the side of his bed, poised to either run or fight, depending on who came through the door. 

“Felicity,” Tommy said. It was both question and command. 

“She called to say she got home safe, but she wants to be alone right now.”

“Oliver, so help me, if you—”

“I told her you were the Midnight Vigilante,” Oliver confessed quietly. “I thought she knew. I thought it would help us talk about me being Deadshot for five years.”

“Fuck.” Tommy raised trembling hands and scrubbed his face. Wires jiggled, something beeped, and he shoved roughly at Oliver. “Get off.”

Oliver paused, but stayed where he was. “You smell like her. I…I need that.”

Even avoiding Oliver’s haunted, exhausted eyes, Tommy understood how painful the admission was. He took a deep breath, scenting his mate on Oliver just as much as Oliver could scent Felicity on him. He tried to pretend that Oliver wasn’t the man he’d loved as a friend and a brother nearly his whole life, tried to pretend that Oliver hadn’t lied and betrayed them all, letting them think he was dead in the explosion in Central City, letting _Thea_ believe it. Instead, he tried to think of Oliver as an Alpha who had just found his fated Omega mate under the most difficult circumstances. What would that be like? Tommy hadn’t spent every waking second with Felicity when he’d met her, because she hadn’t acknowledged the bond and was hopped up on Beta drugs that denied her biology. It wasn’t until she started weaning off the protocol that she started to accept his presence. Since then, she’d moved into his loft without fanfare, he’d bought a king-sized bed and new sheets, and they coordinated their busy work schedules to spend as many meals together as possible. When Felicity hit her first heat—or Tommy hit his first rut, whichever happened first—the law would require them to seclude themselves for a week, but that hadn’t happened. Instead, they’d just been enjoying one another, getting to know each other with takeout in front of the TV and hours of touching each other in the darkness, learning every sigh.

With Oliver, however, she’d been ready. Fully Omega. Not blindsided, but waiting for a random stranger to take the other half of her heart. If Tommy knew his mate—and he did—she’d left scared, hurt, and confused. If it were any other Alpha, what were the risks? Alphas didn’t drop, but they occasionally entered a feral state. They could switch from a cycle run by their Omega to a rut having nothing to do with their Omega’s needs and cycle. That wasn’t too much of a tragedy when the couple had been together forever, but Tommy had really been hoping he didn’t enter a state of constant need for Felicity until she was ready for that. Everything was so, so new. Another risk was that Oliver could go Alpha-blind, losing the ability to process things logically. In this state, Tommy had ignored a lot of incredibly important unknown variables about Felicity. What would Oliver do or feel toward her in his blindness?

“You need to go there,” Tommy said. “Find her and mark her. She’s running scared, she needs a full connection.”

Oliver picked his head up. “She’s not going to repudiate me? Us?”

“Not without a conversation. We both owe her explanations and apologies, but she won’t run before hearing us out.”

“How can you be so sure?” Oliver asked. “I’ve been abandoned for less.”

“By a mate?” Tommy raised one eyebrow.

“No.” 

Tommy sighed. “Where are you at with security?”

“She won’t be in danger,” Oliver said immediately, raising his voice a little. “After years of being on the wrong side of the law, it’s finally going to work in my favor.”

Tommy didn’t understand a word of that, but he could hear the certainty in Oliver’s tone. 

“Have you talked to Thea?” he asked, leaving the sharpness in his voice.

“She cried. Then she hit me.” Oliver rubbed his arm, where his sister had left a bruise. “When did she present as Alpha? And when did she learn how to fight?”

“About a year after you left,” Tommy said, deliberately choosing not to use the word “died.” “I trained her to help me at night after she found out and demanded to join me. She hasn’t found a mate, but she’s been volunteering at the clinic one weekend a month. She’s a very responsible Alpha and an amazing woman. You should be proud of her.”

Oliver nodded. Then he got off the bed and flicked his gaze guiltily to the chair, which was shoved into the darkest corner of the room. “I touched Felicity.”

“I can scent that. Thank you.”

To say that Oliver looked wary was an understatement.

“This could be the pain meds talking, but the most important thing to me is _her._ What she needs. What she feels. So, no, I don’t like taking the high road with a man who lied to me for five years, but I’m willing to overlook that in favor of my _Omega_ , who is the most important thing in this world to me. You know as well as I do that there are Omegas who are mated to more than one person.”

“ARGUS agents think that was the aliens’ original intent,” Oliver offered. 

“Now is not the time to tell me how you know so much about ARGUS,” Tommy said, holding up a hand. “But I want you to hear me: Felicity Smoak is the love of my life. I’m not jealous of you, Oliver, I’m _thankful_ for you showing up. So go find her, and be with her, and don’t fuck it up.”

Oliver looked at Tommy for about three seconds, then turned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him. 

###

Thea was the one to spring Tommy from the hospital. She showed up in a winter white pantsuit with blood-red heels and her hair swinging around her chin. Her nails were shiny and she smelled like her favorite perfume, but Tommy saw the pinched lips and the red around her eyes that makeup couldn’t hide. He hugged her tightly, mindful of the tender spot in his chest, then squeezed her hand and hung on tight. He didn’t have any words. Not yet.

“Wow, two Alphas, okay,” said the discharge nurse, taking a step back. “So your doctors went over your recovery schedule and what to expect. Reconstruction is an open-patent, which means any hospital in the country can use the technique and profit from it, but the inventor requires a stipulation to every surgeon to inform the recipient of alien-technology side effects. With heart surgery, it’s all benefit. The most important thing to understand is that you might have a slightly longer life-span than an average human. 150 instead of 120 or 130. Please take that into account with family and retirement planning. Also, you will be able to control your own dynamic with greater variability—because of the heart affecting circulation, obviously, you can retard or extend a rut, increase or decrease stamina, whatever you need to ensure successful offspring.”

“Please make me an Auntie,” Thea joked, making the nurse laugh, but Tommy could see she wasn’t kidding. 

“The final thing you need to know is that you won’t be affected by supernatural genetic manipulation.”

“What now?” Thea asked. Tommy froze.

“It’s not widely publicized, obviously, but there are scientists who are doing illegal experiments with alien technology and the human genome. There’s the popular threat of creating super soldiers, but most of the failures we’ve treated across the country involve mind-control. Convincing victims to leave a job or a city and come work for the ones pulling the strings. No one’s been able to get an Alpha to leave their mate, so Betas have been the biggest casualties. However, In 100 percent of the cases, anyone with a reconstructed heart has been immune. So, congratulations, you’re safe from evil scientists.” 

Thea chuckled along with the nurse, who handed Tommy a tablet to swipe with his fingerprint, but he didn’t laugh. All he could think about was the look on Oliver’s face before he’d pulled the trigger.

Oliver had waited for him at his sniper’s perch. He’d accused Tommy of being a corrupt Alpha who had coerced Felicity into a fake relationship. He’d threatened Tommy. Scared him, if he was being honest, with his passion and determination to protect a woman he knew was his mate just by seeing her through rifle optics. Tommy had his hands up, protesting, trying to buy some time. But then Oliver’s nostrils had flared. His grip on the gun changed from firm to tight, his blue eyes narrowed and he moved his finger from the side of the gun to the trigger. _That’s_ what Tommy remembered while the nurse was chatting up Thea Queen, asking her about the rumors that her brother was alive. Oliver would have shot if he needed to, but Tommy didn’t immediately challenge his claim on Felicity, so it was more a scare tactic than anything else. But then Oliver had caught the scent. The scent of Tommy really being Felicity’s mate.

And he’d shot him in the heart without even batting an eye.

At first, Tommy assumed Oliver had made a scared, territorial Alpha move. It was juvenile and dangerous and could have seriously hurt their Omega. But when he woke up and heard Felicity talking about Oliver with her fear as high as her nervous excitement, he knew that Oliver could never do anything to hurt Felicity, including harming Tommy. He’d scented the truth, and shot Tommy on purpose. Which meant that he _wanted_ Tommy to have a recon heart. Why? What did he know? Did it have to do with the League of Assassins, which Oliver knew about, or something to do with ARGUS, the secret and elite not-government agency that even Malcolm tried to avoid at all costs? Or was it something different, something connected to what the particle accelerator had done to Oliver’s DNA?

_Oliver, what are you mixed up in?_ Tommy wondered.

In the car on the way home, Thea scoffed at Tommy’s explanation of why Oliver had shot him.

“You’re still covering for him? Ohmygod it’s like high school all over again except this time he came back from the dead.” Thea sounded tired, but not wholly angry. Tommy patted the top of her slim hand where it rested on the gearshift. 

“I’m just saying it could make sense.”

“Oliver does like his dramatic entrances.”

“He promised to explain everything,” Tommy said, watching Thea out of the corner of his eye. She maintained a perfectly calm expression that reminded him of Moira. Spine of steel. And once again, he really, really wished that the Queen family wasn’t so fractured and split apart by grief on all sides. “What did he say to you?”

“He said not to tell you anything if you asked. He wants to tell you himself.”

“Is he…is he okay?”

Thea blew out a breath. Without taking her eyes off the road, she smiled. “Yes. Yeah, he is. Or, he will be, I’m not entirely sure. But Felicity will be safe with him. I know he doesn’t have very many reasons to smile, but when I mentioned I’d met her, he smiled. And it was like he’d finally come home to me.”

“Don’t cry, you’re driving,” Tommy admonished. Thea laughed. “Maybe you should think about putting your dynamic strands on the registry,” he suggested to Thea. That sobered her right up.

“And match myself out to hundreds of Omegas who fit, hoping one of them is my mate? Ugh. I don’t have time for that. Besides, the registry is public. I don’t want anyone to want me just because I’m a zillionaire or whatever. I want to trust that fate will bring my mate to me when I’m ready. When he’s ready. Or she. Can you picture me siring pups?”

“Um, not the actual _act_ of siring them, but yeah. Really fashionable ones,” Tommy said. “Really smart, really pretty ones.”

“I can picture yours easy as pie,” Thea said, her smile growing wider. “Poor Felicity, though, do you think she’ll drop twins every time?”

“Anna Palmer says yes, if Oliver and I both knot her while she’s in heat. Which hasn’t happened yet. She’s worried that because of all the designer supplements she took at high doses, she might never go into heat.”

“Well, that doesn’t matter, she’s still your mate. Nothing can change that.” Thea waved one hand, her bracelets clanking against each other. “I know it will work out. And even though I don’t want to be on the registry, I do want to find someone, Tommy. I want a dozen pups running around.”

“A dozen? Thea.”

“What! I can afford it! And so can you. So stop worrying about Felicity and start believing in yourself. You love her. You belong together. Everything will be fine.”

Thea insisted on walking him to his door. Without saying it, they both expected Malcolm to be there. Instead, the guards at the front door watched them carefully as they went through their eye scans, breathing a sigh of relief when they passed the tests.

“Your mate, Mr. Merlyn, she insisted we let a stranger through who _also_ claimed to be…a mate…and it’s rare, but you said she had free reign to…” Maria, the Beta head of security, stammered for the first time since he’d known her. When she realized she was wringing her hands, she shoved them in her pockets. 

“It’s okay,” Tommy said. The trip from the hospital had exhausted him, but he had time to explain. It was good practice for the press, for Merlyn Global, for his friends at the Clinic. For the Alpha Council. “I know the timing is terrible, but Felicity and I have found the third mate in our triad. It’s Oliver Queen. Yes, the same Oliver Queen who disappeared five years ago in the particle accelerator explosion. He was rebuilding his life after a traumatic brain injury and only now felt it was right to come home. We were all completely shocked when it turned out he was ours.”

“Well, it’s not that shocking,” Maria said, her shoulders slumping in relief. “Fate brings you together when you need it. That’s the whole point.”

“That’s what I said,” Thea said, putting her arm around Tommy and guiding him toward the private elevator. 

“We’ll set up a security intake so Mr. Queen can come and go,” Maria said. “We’ve also increased security against your father, as requested. Ray Palmer—the CEO of Palmer Tech himself, not even an employee—came by and gave us a warning system for the perimeter of the property that will interact with Mr. Merlyn’s DNA.”

“Thank you, Maria. That sounds incredible. I’d like to take a look at it, but not today.”

“Right! Rest, and….” The guard’s face remained impassive and she went back to the desk. 

Thea managed to hold her snicker of laughter until they reached the elevator. “The end of that sentence is why I’m leaving you here. You will always be my brother, Tommy. I love Felicity and I am so happy you found each other, and Oliver…it’s just a little too…”

“It’s overwhelming for me, too,” Tommy said honestly, hugging her. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to escort him up to his private penthouse loft and be inundated by a scent-filled reminder of the brother she’d lost, now found. Very much found. And doing who knows what, even though they could both imagine it. Thea, with a little shudder. Tommy, with interest. Thea hugged him back and left, her heels clicking on the marble floor of the small lobby. 

Tommy felt butterflies in his stomach on the solo ride in the elevator. In one hand, he carried a small bag of his belongings—whatever he hadn’t thrown out at the hospital. He wore sweats and sneakers and an old t-shirt Thea had stolen months ago. It was a comfort outfit, an “I just had my heart blown apart and put together with alien tech” outfit. It wasn’t a power suit, or his kevlar-leathers, or anything that would give him the confidence to walk into his own house and watch—hear—scent—Oliver and Felicity. He wasn’t jealous. He was just…unprepared. When the guard had confirmed they were in residence he’d felt so relieved. Now all he felt was nervous. More nervous than taking the streets at night in search of criminals trying to escape justice. More nervous than flying back from Prague when Felicity needed him. He steeled himself for whatever he would find when he opened the door. 

Tommy unlocked the door and went in, locking it behind him and taking a deep breath before turning around. His jaw was clenched tightly against the emotions that threatened to spill out, but dropped in complete shock at the scene in his living room. He’d expected to hear his mates having sex upstairs. Or walk in on them downstairs. Maybe, if he was very lucky, they’d be napping between rounds. A small part of him feared he’d walk in and be slammed with the scent of his Omega in heat for the first time and know that he missed guiding her through the first wave of it. He never expected this.

Felicity wasn’t stretched out on the couch in her pajamas. She wore a navy blue dress with a full skirt that swung around her knees, and a thin gold necklace. Her heels were peach, matching her lipstick, and her hair was up in her “I’m working” ponytail. She perched on a barstool and narrated as she typed code into her laptop, pausing inbetween cybertech language he didn’t understand to shout commands at Oliver, who was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. “More, come on. Give me another name,” she said, her voice sharp and determined. 

Oliver wore a clean gray t-shirt with his cargo pants. He wore shoes, too, something Tommy hardly ever did in the house. He paced in front of the fireplace. In his hand was a white marker, and he was fiddling with the cap and muttering to himself, trying to remember. He paused to scribble a couple of numbers and a single word—cell—on a clear workboard Felicity had set up by the window.

“Vibe,” Oliver said, his eyes snapping open. He kept pacing. “Waller called him Vibe. His real name was Cisco. I don’t know his last name. Mexican descent, dark hair—longish. He wore a ponytail on missions. Wasn’t stationed with me.”

“Power?” Felicity asked, typing like mad.

“He can create breaches in time and space and dimension. Also maybe psychic? Some kind of tracking or sensing power. We only worked together once but he was chatty. Felt like he was trying to see if I was loyal to ARGUS or not.”

“What the hell is going on?” Tommy asked. He’d made it all the way to the couch before either of his mates noticed he was there. Felicity turned, still typing. She blinked at him behind her glasses, then turned her back on him. Oliver opened his mouth as if to rebuke her, but changed his mind. He stopped pacing and lifted his chin at Tommy.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like you just shot me in the chest,” Tommy replied. “Thea drove me home. She says hi.”

“Really?” Oliver couldn’t help but look pleased by that. 

Tommy scoffed. “No, she’s pissed as hell. And so am I. What are you doing? You’re supposed to be bonding with our Omega, not setting up mission control in my living room for….whatever this is. What is this?”

“After the particle accelerator exploded, I was taken captive by ARGUS. They swooped in like they knew what was going to happen and kidnapped all the employees. Amanda Waller imprisoned us, waiting to see if any of us developed metahuman powers. They’ve been searching the blast radius, too, trying to find other metas. Everyone she finds is conscripted to work in her army.”

“Conscripted isn’t the word I’d use,” Felicity offered, her back to both of them. “Tell him.”

“A chip was implanted in our brains that’s connected to a kill switch held by Director Waller herself. She sent us on mission after mission. If we refused, she’d terminate us. She called us the Suicide Squad. We were completely obedient to ARGUS’s every command. The only way to leave the army was to die, or find our mate. We all prayed for the latter.”

Felicity half-turned on her stool. She spoke at Tommy but looked over his shoulder. “The cerebral-supernatural connection of an Alpha-Omega bond dissolves the nanofilm surrounding the chip and shorts out the communication matrix. Ray stopped by to install a security piece for the building and verified that Oliver’s chip has gone dark. He’s consulting with Dr. Amelia Shepherd—she’s the best neurosurgeon in the country. She’s flying in from Metropolis tomorrow, because I don’t care that the chip has been overridden. I want it _out_ of him.”

“Yes, of course,” Tommy heard himself agreeing. Suicide Squad? Nanotech mind-control? That sounded like the exact kind of technology his father wished Ra’s al Ghul would start incorporating into the League of Assassins. “Are _you_ okay?” he asked Oliver.

“No neurological backlash since I abandoned my orders. Not even a headache. It was kind of creepy seeing the dark spot on my brain, though. Palmer, he had some kind of phone-sized scanner…do you know that our Omega is best friends with the best Beta-inventor in the western Hemisphere?”

“Wait til you meet Anna.” Tommy sat down on the couch. It felt so good to sit down. He just wished Felicity would join him. Or look at him. “I’m glad you’re cured.”

Oliver touched his index finger to his eye. “Not cured. I’ll always have this…eyesight. But I’m free of ARGUS. And so are you,” he added, gesturing to Tommy’s chest. “I’m sorry. The only failure Waller ever had was experimenting on people with recon hearts. Once I knew you were really Felicity’s mate, I…”

“Were as dramatic as possible instead of chatting over coffee.” Tommy almost smiled. “Typical. So, are we worried about ARGUS coming to retrieve their lost soldier?” 

“It’s going to be hard to kidnap Oliver Queen. A tri-mated Oliver Queen, back from the dead.”

“Oh, good call.” Tommy blew out a breath. Knowing Oliver had been forced into the role of a killer was better than believing he’d been doing it by choice. Still, he’d killed. And those deaths would weigh on him forever. Tommy looked at Felicity. Who was still ignoring him, typing madly on her keyboard. She was in the zone, but he felt her anger like a physical blow. Her scent comforted him, though. There was no way to explain what it felt like to be in the presence of an Omega who was your bondmate, your permanent match. Tommy had serviced and cared for many Omegas in his life but none of them tipped him sideways and upside down like Felicity Smoak. 

“I wanted to wait until you were home and tell the both of you together, but Felicity needed me to tell her the truth right away, so I did. And that’s the short version. The long version is…this.” Oliver tapped the wipe-board with his marker. “I’m going over every detail I can remember and Felicity’s writing an algorithm to catalogue and locate other metas, and find a pattern to Waller’s missions.”

“That’s going to take forever,” Tommy said. Oliver shrugged, looking at Felicity. His stoic silence was easy to translate: whatever she needs. 

Tommy was done capitulating to Felicity’s needs. He understood her desire to help Oliver and her skills would certainly be able to complete the project in record time, and maybe free other prisoners. But she didn’t _need_ to do it right now, working around the clock and keeping a frenetic pace. What she needed was to acknowledge his presence. Tommy didn’t care if she yelled at him instead of hugged him, but her Alpha was wounded and one day post-op. Her presence in the room wasn’t enough. Physical contact—sexual or otherwise—was necessary to ground her to the reality that they had suffered and were now safe. If she continued to ignore Tommy, it would hurt. All of them.

“Felicity, come here.”

It was an order.

She gasped and gripped the edge of the table, then whipped her head around to glare at him.

“Don’t you dare,” she spat, but she was sliding off her stool as she said it. 

“Come here,” Tommy repeated. He was so tired. He pointed to the floor in front of him. “Kneel.”

“Jesus, Tommy, come on,” Oliver protested as Felicity obeyed, a sob catching in her throat. Tears welled up in her eyes. She crossed her arms and trembled with rage. Tommy leaned forward and placed a warm hand on her shoulder.

“Felicity, I am sorry that I did not tell you that I am the Midnight Vigilante. I was going to tell you after the auction. I didn’t get the chance. I am asking you to forgive me, but I understand if you can’t right now. I also want you to know that Thea helps me sometimes, and our contact person on the Squadron is Detective Lance. My base of operations is a private gym in the Glades. It’s where I keep my equipment.”

“Why?” Felicity cried. 

“Everything happened so fast between us. I was more concerned with helping you heal from the Beta -drug side effects than revealing my darkest secrets. I swear, I intended to tell you right after the auction.” _And ask you exactly what kind of ‘hacktivity’ you’ve been up to,_ Tommy thought, but wisely did not say out loud. 

“No, I mean…why would you do something like that? Become something like that? Putting yourself in danger every night? I don’t understand.” Felicity climbed onto the couch next to him, but didn’t touch him. “Help me understand.” 

“You know my father as difficult, manipulative. The satellite feeds you found of him in strange, non-business-world places were locations where the League of Assassins has a foothold. Corto Maltese, Nanda Parbat. Ivy Town. My father is a high-ranking member, has been since my mother died. He trained me, knowing I had no interest in it. I think he let me off easy because he really does need someone to run Merlyn Global Group, and I turned out to be good at business, but part of him will always see me as weak for not joining the League. I despise what they do, who they are, but at the same time I see the crime and corruption in Starling City and I can’t just sit idly by, not when I was trained to fight. So I do fight. And it’s not enough, it’s not nearly enough, but if I can save one person, one family, it increases our chances for making this city not just exist, but thrive.”

“You could go out and never come back,” Felicity said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “The Midnight Vigilante is in the news all the time. Oh my G-d, the Bank Street fire last year, the Vigilante didn’t show up again for weeks, were you---is that the scar on your leg?”

“Yes,” Tommy said. “There’s always a possibility I could go out and never come back.”

“Which is why he’s going to have me in the field, backing his every move.” Oliver sat down next to Felicity, effectively squishing her into Tommy’s side. “And Thea. And their Squadron contact. Sure would be nice to have a genius computer expert running comms.”

“What—are you serious? You’re not serious.”

“Why not?” Oliver asked. “You’ve clearly had your hand in the dark web, fighting evil in your own way. Instead of searching the globe for things gone wrong, why don’t you focus on this city? Help Tommy in his crusade. Help people live, and thrive, and continue to be free.”

“You sound like his crusade is a good idea, instead of a way to get himself killed.”

“I do think it’s a good idea. I think fate wouldn’t have sent me into your dynamic, Felicity, unless I could not only handle Tommy being a hero, but try and be one next to him. I’d like the chance to right my own wrongs. I want—I want to be worthy of—”

Felicity covered Oliver’s mouth with her hand. “Don’t say that,” she told him kindly. “No one in this room is worthy or unworthy of anyone else in this room.”

“Don’t decide tonight,” Tommy said. “But I wouldn’t mind if you maybe forgave me tonight?”

“Yeah,” Felicity said with a sigh. “You’re forgiven. But I’m still mad.”

“Noted.” Tommy leaned back into the couch and poked Oliver in the ribs. “What’s for dinner?”

“Ow,” Oliver said, pretending to be hurt. “Who said I’m cooking?”

“You’re a great cook. And you shot me. That’s like, infinite favors. You could order takeout but our Omega really needs more iron, isn’t that what your last bloodwork showed, Felicity?”

“Anemic?” Oliver’s eyes went from sparkling to worried in a flash. “I saw steak in the freezer. It will only take ten minutes on the kash-grill. Do you have a kash-grill?”

“Make her eat salad, too.” Tommy closed his eyes. “I’m just gonna stay right here. Wake me when it’s ready.”

As he fell asleep, he listened to Oliver lecturing Felicity on proper nutrition and Felicity deliberately driving him crazy with her sugar cereal choices. She laughed, and Oliver growled low in his throat, which made her stop laughing. Tommy thought they might be kissing, but it didn’t go anywhere, because Oliver set her to chopping vegetables for the salad. The last thing he heard was Felicity sighing and muttering, “Alphas” under her breath.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is like 6K words of YKINMKATO. Though, compared to other fandoms it's tame? I don't know. Anyway, there's smut. You're warned. Enjoy, I hope!

As soon as dinner was over, Felicity excused herself to take care of the thousand gajillion work emails that had cropped up in her absence. She didn’t initiate sexual contact and neither did either of her mates. _See,_ she told herself. _It wasn’t like the soap operas. People could go to sleep in their oldest, most comfortable pajama pants with the nesting dolls on them and not have sex._ The very next day, Oliver had surgery to remove the disabled ARGUS tech from his brain. It was like Christmas for Ray Palmer, who vowed to reverse engineer the tech to help them in their search to find and free the other metahumans Amanda Waller was keeping prisoner. Felicity stayed with Oliver in the hospital like she’d stayed with Tommy, and just like the first few days of acknowledging Tommy as her mate, they mostly talked, getting to know each other. Okay so sure, she got to know him below the belt a little—curiosity got the better of her his second night in the hospital, and he came all over her hand with a growl that almost had her following him into bliss. But for the most part, their bonding was intimate and safe, not hot and steamy. The hospital made her nervous, though, and she was glad when Oliver was cleared to go home. Felicity happily went back to work, confident in her new triad. The Unidac auction still hovered as a horrible, terrible memory but she had given as much information as they possibly could to Detective Lance without compromising anyone’s security or after-hours work. It was a weird but good week. One mate was going back to work after reconstructive heart surgery. The other had had “minor” surgery to remove an invasive, deadly chip from his brain. Needless to say, Felicity was more concerned with security than sex. Anna Palmer wasn’t having any of it. She dragged Felicity out of applied sciences for a vitals check and raised her eyebrows at the test results. 

“Your dynamic temp has been consistently elevated over the last week,” Anna said. “I know you think it was stress because of the auction. I disagree. Other pre-heat indicators include nesting, overprotectiveness—”

“It’s not nesting, it’s logistics,” Felicity protested. “Three of us are living in that loft now, and there’s only one full bathroom. That powder room under the stairs is adorable, but it’s really too small for either of them. Did you notice how big they are? I mean height-wise. Tall. They’re both…very tall.”

Anna smirked.

“And I’m not being overprotective,” Felicity argued. “Tommy has a new heart. And Oliver was fine three days post-op after brain surgery, doesn’t that seem a little quick to you?”

“Well, Alphas who recover with their mate have a fraction of the recovery time of a—”

“—and Malcolm Merlyn dared show his face again, at work where Tommy couldn’t yell at him, and claimed that Amanda Waller forced his hand, too, like he’s a victim of ARGUS just like Oliver was, but because of blackmail and not a chip. It was the stupidest lie I’d ever heard.”

“You had to know he’d say something like that,” Anna said. “His first allegiance is to that League of Assassins thing. If he hired ARGUS to assassinate you and it went south, he’s going to push the blame on someone else.”

“Why would he try to kill me in the first place?” Felicity wondered aloud. “The first time I met him he begged me to go public with the bond. Why such an about-face?”

“Maybe he’s telling the truth.”

“Anna.”

“I’m a doctor, not a criminal mastermind!” Anna said. “And I know that you’re changing the subject. Your pre-heat symptoms are going to increase rapidly now that you’re living with both of them. Do you have any questions?”

“Nope.”

“Felicity…”

“Not thinking about it, Anna.” Felicity bounced her knee up and down, her gaze darting around Anna’s lab. She stopped on the medical table where she used to receive her Beta hormone treatments. “Can’t you just pump me full of stabilizers? I don’t know if I like where this is going.”

“Felicity, it’s natural. Stop fighting it. Let the heat come.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re a Beta. You’re never overwhelmed by this…alien urge to repopulate the earth.”

“Well, not with a dynamic-induced heat cycle, no. But Betas can and do reproduce at normal rates.”

Anna grinned from ear to ear, her dark eyes sparkling. Felicity gasped.

“Anna, are you pregnant?”

“Yes, ten weeks along.”

“Congratulations! Oh my G-d, that is fantastic!”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away, but there’s been a lot going on and Ray and I wanted to wait until the first scan. We opted not to know the sex, but we do know the dynamic. It’s an Omega baby.”

“Your Omega baby is going to be the cutest thing ever!”

“Ray cried, he was so happy. Then he started worrying that the baby would start psychically predicting outcomes of our experiments and corrupt the data.”

“That is such a Ray Palmer thing to say. Anna. Anna! Congratulations!”

The hugging went on so long that Felicity broke a sweat. Anna released her, still laughing, and slapped the cool metal bracelet on her wrist again, taking her levels for the third time that hour.

“You’re up to 102. Felicity, I think you better go.”

“I really can’t. Curtis and I are finishing up the last stage of the Breakwater project, and the prototype is almost ready for initial testing. I shouldn’t have even come down here—”

Felicity stopped and gasped as a wave of arousal came out of nowhere. 

“Nowhere,” she breathed.

“What?” Anna asked. “Felicity?”

“It came out of nowhere,” Felicity said, laughing nervously as the spike of pleasure passed. “One second I was thinking about cybernetic prosthetics, the next second I was—ohmyg-d. _Fuck._ ”

“Yeah, it happens really fast,” Anna said calmly. She swiveled in her chair and tapped out a sequence on the wall comm. “Tommy Merlyn, please. It’s Dr. Anna Palmer. Yes, I’ll hold.”

Felicity swallowed on a dry throat. An orgasm hovered right underneath the surface of her skin, blood flowing south and swelling her sex. She parted her legs just a little to relieve the pressure, relieved that Anna couldn’t scent it. But there were other Alphas in the building, weren’t there? Oh, no, what if her scent leaked out of the lab?

“Four-seven-halcyon-lock,” Felicity gasped aloud. The verbal protocol immediately locked the door to Anna’s personal lab and sealed the windows shut.

“Hey, Tommy, it’s Anna. Felicity’s pre-heat manifested into true heat, so if you could come pick her up, that would be great…well, of course I’m calm, I’m not the one on the verge of…we’re in my lab. Yes, it’s safe…well, your girl designed the security features, so…Tommy? Hello?” Anna hung up the phone. “He’s on his way.”

“Okay.” Felicity stood up from her chair on shaky legs and climbed onto the exam table. Her legs dangled over the side and she leaned forward, breathing heavily. “Anna, I’m sorry, this is so embarrassing.”

“You forget the part where I’m an evolutionary geneticist. I’ve seen hundreds of Omegas in heat. Friend Anna would give you your privacy, but Doctor Anna is going to drape you with a cold blanket—there, is that better? Yes?—and monitor your vitals so you don’t stroke out trying to hold that heat level by yourself. Tommy will be here any minute, I promise. He’ll take you home to Oliver and the three of you will—”

Felicity cried out as the orgasm broke free. Pleasure ricocheted through her body, tingling down to her fingertips in almost painful sparks. She gritted her teeth and snapped her legs together, but the image Anna’s words had given her lingered in her brain. Her two mates, taking care of her. Pleasuring her. Felicity let go of the tight grip she had on the edge of the table and pulled the chilled cotton blanket around her hot, aching shoulders. The shiny metal of the medtracker on her wrist made her eyes narrow.

“You made me think about that on purpose,” she gasped, breathing into the after-pulses. 

“Yeah, I did,” Anna said, her eyes on the scan readouts. “This is your first heat, Felicity, after ten years of avoiding it. You spent an extraordinarily long time in pre-heat. I think it’s a blessing in disguise it broke while you were in the lab, getting your levels checked. Oh, hey, you’re ramping up again. Don’t fight it, okay, just let it—”

“Let’s see how calm you are when you’re in labor and I’m the one looking at the monitor!” Felicity snapped. And as Anna busied herself with the beeping scans, Felicity squeezed her eyes shut and let another powerful wave of pleasure explode through her body. This was unlike anything she’d experienced. She wasn’t even touching herself. Or actively thinking about it. It was scary, how she could feel it start building from absolutely nowhere. She was breathing hard after the orgasm faded, and pressed her sweaty face into the coolness of the blanket around her. 

“This is why we get an Omega into the presence of an Alpha as soon as possible when a heat hits,” Anna said as Felicity gratefully accepted a bottle of water. “An Alpha will be able to control and subdue the need, so it won’t blindside you. They’ll guide you through it, Felicity.”

Tommy banged on the door, jolting Felicity upright. “Felicity? Anna, open the door!”

Felicity spoke the code to unlock the door and Anna was still taking off Felicity’s tracker when Tommy swept her up in his arms. 

“Woah! Hey!” Anna said, barely slipping the cuff off Felicity’s wrist before Tommy strode out the door with her, the blanket trailing behind them. 

Felicity managed a half-wave at her friend before Tommy rounded the corner. She probably should have said goodbye, or congratulated her again, or gave her some instructions for Curtis. But all she could do was feel. And right now her humiliation was greater than her libido. It was fine to talk with Anna about dynamics when it was all hypothetical, when it was numbers on a page. Case studies. Patent-pending experiments. It was another thing altogether when you’re sitting there in front of G-d and everyone (everyone being your best friend) and having an _orgasm you cannot turn off._

Tommy’s chuckle let her know she’d been ranting aloud. Felicity blinked and took a deep breath. Usually the scent of him calmed her down. Or excited her in a hopeful way, like how nice it was going to be to not be alone anymore. Today, in his small car, it did not help her state of emergency.

“State of emergency,” Tommy echoed. Off her look, he waved a hand. “No, I’m not reading your mind. You’re talking stream-of-consciousness now. I swear to you, once we’ve had sex for a couple of hours, you’ll have much better psychological control.”

“A couple of hours?!”

“Yeah, to start.” Tommy took his eyes off the road for a second and gave her a quick scan. “You know a heat can last up to a week, right?”

“I’m going to die from sex.” 

“Name one case study of an Omega dying from sex,” Tommy challenged her. “Come on, get that beautiful brain of yours thinking. Did Anna Palmer ever mention an Omega ever shuffling off this mortal coil from a heat cycle they couldn’t handle?”

“Anna is pregnant!” Felicity said brightly. “It’s an Omega. Like me.”

“Wow, congrats to them, that’s awesome. They must be so excited.”

“They are. She was. She didn’t seem…she didn’t seem to care that the baby would need extra care. I mean, Ray is scared the baby’s psychic powers will disrupt PalmerTech’s bottom line but I bet as soon as the baby hits their first heat, they’ll be on the payroll, running R and D.” Felicity fumbled with her seatbelt as soon as they pulled into the garage. Her stomach cramped a little, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She’d be fine as soon as she was in her own home, with her own mates.

“No doubt. Okay, we’re home. I tried to get you thinking about statistics, not pregnancy, but I think you were duly distracted.” 

Tommy’s blue eyes twinkled as he unbuckled himself and launched out of his stupid sports car that couldn’t even fly. Stupid tiny seats made of leather that felt like marshmallows. How was that even possible? Candy seats.

“She’s not making any sense.”

This was Oliver, who met them at the door of the underground garage bare-chested and barefooted, wearing only a pair of Tommy’s dark blue pajama pants. Felicity’s mouth actually watered when she saw his muscled chest and arms. She pressed her lips tightly together so she would not start babbling about wanting to rub herself on his abs. 

“It’s just the first stage,” Tommy told him. He put his hands on Felicity’s shoulders and steered her toward that wall of muscle that smelled like forever. “She needs us to ground her.”

“Turn off the security in the elevator,” Oliver commanded gruffly, but there was no power behind it. Tommy swallowed thickly and shook his head. 

“Can’t. Felicity could, maybe, but she’s—”

As soon as the elevator doors shut, Felicity launched herself at Tommy, fusing her mouth to his. He tasted perfect. Faintly of mint. His tongue was cool against hers, matching her intensity but not her roaming hands. He caught her wrists and held them down at her sides for the infernally long, unfair ride up to the penthouse loft. Behind her, Oliver held her hips still, his fingertips digging into her soft flesh just enough to keep her aware. Felicity sighed into Tommy’s mouth, walking him backwards as soon as the doors opened behind him. Oliver unlocked the door, she tripped across the threshold still kissing Tommy, and gasped to see the fireplace was on. Didn’t they know she was already hot as an oven? She heard the snick of the lock and the hum of the blackout security she’d designed to complement Tommy’s debugging technology. The floor to ceiling windows shifted to light gray, closing out the world, and then everything changed in an instant. 

Oliver’s hands were underneath her skirt, tugging down her panties as Tommy pulled her dress up and over her head. Felicity moaned as their blessedly cool hands stripped her down without a word. 

“Oh my God,” Oliver said reverently, running his hand up the inside of her thigh. “Felicity, you’re dripping.”

Felicity’s knees buckled when Oliver licked the moisture on his fingertips and smiled at the taste of her. Tommy swept her up—that made twice in one day—and carried her two feet over to the kitchen table. It was a dark slab of walnut on a metal base, and Felicity didn’t even need Oliver’s hand sliding down her spine to coax her into bending over the cool top. She hissed when her tight, aching nipples hit the wood, then cried out when Oliver lifted her hips and slid into her with one smooth, hard thrust. He held her hips, but she stretched up on her toes to fit. Just. Right. 

Oliver was not nearly as chatty as Tommy during sex. At least, not during this fast, intense, heat-fueled connection. The only sounds she heard were the slap of Oliver’s thrusts and the occasional moan or grunt that slipped out of his mouth. Felicity turned her head, but couldn’t quite see Oliver—but she could see Tommy. His pupils were blown wide and he was unbuttoning his work shirt. The tie was discarded on the floor and his shoes and socks were off. He looked serious as hell watching Oliver mercilessly pound into her. Like he wanted to comment. Like he wanted to _share._

Felicity flung out one arm. She opened and closed her hand until Tommy held it. 

“You’re so close, Felicity,” Tommy told her, crouching down at eye-level. “Your skin is flushed all over. The scent of you…it’s so thick. You make us so hard, so wanting. Lift your hips a little more, honey…yes, good, that’s so good.”

“Oliver,” Felicity cried out as her orgasm crashed through her. He wasn’t even stimulating her clit—just the friction of his relentless pace sent her flying over the edge. And he wasn’t done—he wasn’t there yet. He didn’t even slow down. Instead, he curled his massive body over hers and sunk Alpha canines into the side of her neck. Felicity came again, her mouth open on a wordless scream, arching up into him as he sucked through the mating ritual. Felicity realized he’d come inside her at the same time he’d bit down, but he didn’t make a single sound. His harsh, uneven panting was the only sound he made. A full minute later, Oliver eased off. He pulled her along with him as he stood up, turning her around so he could look her in the eyes. 

“I love you,” he rasped. He crushed her into a hug without waiting for a response. Felicity was glad for that. Because there was intense feeling—there had been even before she knew the truth about him. Now, she couldn’t imagine life without her Alpha. But was that love, or biology? Did it matter? Felicity tucked herself against him. Oliver cupped one large hand around the back of her head and then spoke over her shoulder to Tommy.

“There’s just as much slick in the back,” he said carefully. 

“That’s going to happen with her condition, like I told you. Okay? Felicity, honey, how are you feeling?”

“Hot,” Felicity answered. It didn’t escape her notice that the two men in her life looked at each other, and then Oliver prodded her toward the stairs. Felicity climbed up the stairs ahead of them, painfully aware of the way her thighs stuck to each other. She knew, adjacent to the more important parts in her life like work and play and more work, that in a heat, Omegas core body temperature would grow to dangerously high levels and each time an Alpha came inside her, the temperature would dip back towards normal. The constantly aroused state could be dangerous, medically speaking, which is why clinics like the one Tommy founded in his mother’s name were essential to any town. Felicity just wasn’t prepared for the reality of having two Alphas not only aware of her needs, but intrinsically connected to them. If she suffered, they suffered. She not only needed to let them take care of her, she needed to encourage it. But she didn’t have the words. She knew how to ask for what she wanted in bed—harder, faster, not yet, more, a little to the left, etc—but she didn’t know how to communicate this relentless, hot, ache that she was afraid would never end. 

She climbed onto the enormous bed and pushed all the covers off. Tommy and Oliver joined her on either side. Tommy handed her a water bottle and she drained half of it, then fell back into the pillows. Oliver rested his mouth over the bite he’d just made, licking the wound shut with the enzymes in his saliva. Tommy lazily stroked his hand up and down her leg. She made eye contact with him and saw that he was watching her breathing, waiting for her need to ramp up again.

“You’ll have a bit of a break from the urgency, since Oliver,” Tommy said. “We’re here for you. We’re not going anywhere.”

“We talked about Oliver’s job with ARGUS, we talked about your after-hours job, we even talked about me sneaking around on the internet. But we haven’t talked about the fact that your best friend is back from the dead and is, um, part of this unique situation which is going to…” Felicity trailed off, waving one frustrated hand down her body.

“Oliver and I do have a lot of talking to do,” Tommy admitted. He smiled ruefully at Oliver, who sighed into Felicity’s neck. “But if what you’re really asking is whether or not we’re comfortable having sex with you simultaneously, the answer is yes.”

“He never lets me be vague,” Felicity complained to Oliver.

“We’ve had oral sex with each other,” Oliver told her in response, smiling when her eyes widened in surprise. “Tommy presented as an Alpha really early, the bastard, and since we were friends since forever, we assumed I’d present as Omega and we’d be lucky enough to be mates. Fate does tend to stick people in close proximity to their mate, or maybe bonds develop because of proximity. I don’t know. That’s not—I don’t know the science. But I presented late. I was eighteen, and I came out as an Alpha. It was kind of a shock, honestly. Now there are prenatal scans to tell the dynamic of a fetus, but back then you just had to wait. Tommy and I fooled around whenever we felt like it, but not exclusively. A few years after I presented, I took the job in Central City, at STARLabs. And you know the rest.”

“Tommy did tell me right in the beginning that he thought he’d end up with you, growing up. And I know that any gender can be any dynamic. Anna told me how there’s sort of a…shut off valve? Kind of thing? Inside me, leading to my secondary womb, just how a male Omega is built.”

“You might feel a slight cramp when it switches over,” Oliver told her. “Male Omegas report feeling a little pinch when their breeding channel opens.”

“Oh,” Felicity breathed, closing her eyes. “Anna was so excited when she told me about how she and Ray are having a baby. I’ve never even had a goldfish.” She opened her eyes and looked Oliver, then Tommy, in the eyes. “So you are okay being here with each other? And me?”

“Yes,” they answered at the same time. 

“We’ll talk more about it, I’m sure,” Tommy said. “It’s on the list.”

“Thea’s got a ‘so, you’re back from the dead’ list of things she’s making me talk about,” Oliver told Felicity. “Tommy thought that was a great idea and made up his own.”

“A pup’s a lot different than a goldfish, Felicity. I promise you, if you get pregnant during this heat, your babies will be the most loved, most adored pups in the world.” Tommy dropped a kiss on her lips and pulled back, smiling. “No one, and nothing, will separate us.”

“That sounds like a vow,” Felicity said, twisting towards him. She realized her legs were restlessly moving back and forth on the sheets, trying to find cooler spots. 

“It is a vow.” Tommy put a hand on her leg, stilling her movement. “Felicity, do you want to have a formal vow ceremony with us?”

“Having the Alpha Council show up in Oliver’s post-op room was good enough for me,” Felicity laughed. “I was scared for nothing. The head of the council looked almost _bored_ when he stamped our signed declaration. I thought there’d be an inquisition.”

“They’re trained to scent true bonds,” Oliver said. “Plus, they want Tommy on the Council.”

“Now that I’m not volunteering at the clinic, I’d be an asset to the Council.”

“Boring,” Felicity said. “And you don’t have time, anyway. But if you want a formal ceremony, I’ll do it. Just not—not this week.”

“You’ll be too busy,” Tommy agreed. He rubbed small circles on her belly. “This okay?”

“To be honest, I was cramping in the car on the way here. I just didn’t know it was related to my second womb.”

“Turn over,” Oliver urged her. “I want to see. I want to feel you. Does it feel good, like it would on a male Omega?”

“We’ve played around a little bit,” Tommy told him. 

Felicity flopped on her stomach, groaning at the contact of her hot, feverish skin on the cool sheets. She let Tommy lift her into position and instantly, the cool air hitting her ass relaxed her and she sunk into the mattress with a happy sigh. His fingers traced her rosebud and then skimmed just inside, teasing more slick from the glands right inside her channel. 

“She loves this,” Tommy said to Oliver. “Rub just underneath the gland. Yeah, like that.”

“That feels good?” Oliver asked.

Felicity felt both their fingers inside her, stretching her ass. The squelching sound turned her on instead of embarrassing her. “Yes. And, um, I don’t mean to be impatient, but if one of you could just get on with it, I feel like I’m a thousand degrees right now.” Her voice quavered with the need that snuck up on her without warning. She should have expected it, but the pillow talk had lulled her into forgetting that the heat was in charge right now.

Felicity knew it was Tommy behind her because Oliver laid down next to her, his face close to hers. His serious blue eyes were her focus as Tommy slowly pushed inside her ass. He moaned, low, and rested his hands lightly on her hips.

“You’re s-so tight,” he stuttered. And then he started to move. Felicity felt a stab of pleasure in and around the glands, and concentrated on that tight ring of pleasure. Male Omegas called it the ring of fire, and she used to think that meant it hurt; now she knew it meant the opposite. That when you were on fire, only your Alpha stimulating you there could douse the heat. Tommy didn’t last long, but she still came before he did. Oliver kissed her face as she came down from her high, praising her in whispers about how beautiful she was, how good she was doing, how thankful he was to have found her. Finally, Tommy collapsed on the bed next to her and drew her close for a kiss. They kissed languidly for several minutes until Oliver tapped Tommy on the arm with a bottle of water.

“Hydrate,” he commanded. 

“Yes, sir,” Tommy answered.

Eventually, the times of urgency grew farther and farther apart, and Felicity was able to get a couple of hours of sleep. She showered, ate pancakes Oliver made, attacked Tommy against the pillar in the middle of the loft, and went upstairs for another nap. She lost track of time, lost track of everything except the sight, sound, and scent of her Alphas. Another day passed like that, and despite the raging inferno her body had become, it was kind of restful. They talked—about serious things, like how to navigate their relationship, and whether or not Tommy and Oliver were going to resume a relationship without her present (no) and whether or not she could be with them separately (yes). They talked about simple things like TV and music and who liked what takeout. And they talked about the mission a little, trying to get a foundation and a mission statement they could all agree on, which wasn’t easy. But mostly, Felicity worked on the bond. Every time they touched her, she felt it grow. Until two days later, in the middle of the afternoon, with Oliver’s mouth busy between her legs and Tommy licking her nipples into hard, swollen points, her canines dropped so fast she almost bit her own lip.

“Ungh,” Felicity said, kicking at Oliver’s chest. He backed off immediately, his eyes clouded with concern. 

“Okay, Felicity, bite down.” Tommy was quicker on the uptake. He hauled her to a sitting position and she climbed eagerly into his lap, rubbing her fingers over the mating gland in his neck. Underneath the skin it plumped up and pulsed, as if sensing the last step of her Omega dynamic had come into play. 

“Mark him,” Oliver told her, power rippling through his voice. 

Felicity didn’t even need the order. She lowered her teeth to Tommy’s neck and bit down, expecting resistance. Instead, her teeth easily cut through the skin and into the sweet burst of blood and essence that was hers alone to take. She shot her hand down between Tommy’s legs, expecting him to need her to stroke him to completion, but his hand was already there, holding himself back. 

“Oliver now,” Tommy gasped when Felicity had sucked every last bit of bonding juice from him. 

Felicity turned to find Oliver ready and waiting, his head tilted to the side. She hummed in appreciation at his thoughtfulness and then marked him, too. He tasted different than Tommy, but still Alpha, still fierce and all hers. Her gums ached when her teeth retracted, but for the first time in a few days, she felt absolutely sated.

“I did it!” she crowed. “Take that, dynamic. I’m the queen of Ome—”

Felicity stopped when she saw that both men’s eyes had darkened. 

“Tommy?” she asked. “Oliver? Is everything okay?”

“I can feel it forming,” Oliver said, his voice deeper than it had ever been. He lifted his chin at Tommy. “You?”

“Fuck. Yeah, it’s…I can’t even stop it.”

“Stop what?” Felicity wanted to know. 

“I think you just aligned us, baby,” Oliver said. “The bond is complete. We’re yours. And now we’re in rut to match your heat. We need to knot you. Now.”

“Ohmygosh,” Felicity said. She knew what this meant. “How do you…I mean how do I…”

Oliver flipped her over with one swift wrestling move that had her gasping. He plunged inside her ass before she even had the time to register he was going to do it. Heat surged between her legs, arousing her anew. He started pounding into her, pulling her back to meet each thrust. It felt amazing. Like being opened to the powerful energy of the universe, that’s what it felt like when her Alpha was in rut, needing nothing except the connection with his Omega. Tommy waited on his knees beside her, stroking himself from root to tip with one hand. The other hand was between her legs, rubbing her swollen clit. But he wasn’t talking to her, he was talking to Oliver.

“Harder, Oliver, not faster. It’s coming down your shaft…God, look at that thing, it’s huge…give it all to her, push it in, don’t hold back.”

Felicity’s orgasm hit her about the time Oliver’s knot slipped inside her, pushing his own release into her in hot spurts of seed that filled her twice as much as when he wasn’t in rut. He screamed as he came, plunging into her roughly, locking their bodies together. Felicity closed her eyes. His raw shout echoed in her head. Oliver was the quiet one in bed, his hands and his mouth doing most of the talking. His words to her were sweet, short, and usually whispered or muttered into her skin. To hear him scream through his orgasm made her shake and shot her temperature through the roof. 

“Come here, baby,” Oliver said, awkwardly getting them both on their sides. “I’m going to be here awhile. Lay back, take care of Tommy now.”

“How am I going to do that with you still inside me? Ohhh—” Felicity answered her own question when Oliver wrapped one leg around hers and splayed her wide open for Tommy. He put one knee down on the mattress, guided his cock inside her, and stepped over their conjoined bodies with his other leg. All Felicity could think was that there was no way her abs would let her do something like that. Tommy couldn’t piston in and out as much in that position, but his hips jerked into hers in a way that still stimulated her clit with every thrust. This time, she could see the knot Tommy had been talking about. His eyes darkened nearly to black as the knot moved down his shaft and began to stretch her opening. Felicity opened her legs wider, needing it, needing him, needing him to release his seed inside her. Nothing else could satisfy the passion bursting under her skin. Tommy shouted as streams of seed filled her up and the knot sealed it inside of her. He dropped down, stretching his bottom leg straight, and wrapped his arms around her and Oliver. 

Felicity was cradled between two Alphas. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. They couldn’t pull out of her until the knots deflated. She was full, stretched, and strangely comfortable. Like her body was meant for this. Was this what they felt like, having sex with her when she’d gone into heat? It felt so _right._

“I haven’t had a rut in five years,” Oliver confessed. “The chip prohibited it.”

“I really like it,” Felicity said over her shoulder to him. “It feels tight, but good, you know?”

“You’re amazing,” Tommy said, pushing hair off her sweaty face. “I’m sorry we both needed you at the same time.”

“That’s exactly why I am bonded to two Alphas. And it’s hot. I mean, sexy-hot, not temperature-hot. Though that’s there, too. Because I’m still in heat. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“I’m so fucking tired,” Oliver said. “I forgot what knots do to you.”

“Sleep, then,” Felicity told him. “Tommy’s eyes are at half-mast. And do your eyes always turn black when you’re in rut? I didn’t know that was a thing.”

“It’s a thing,” Tommy said, laying his head down on the mattress. “Just a quick rest, okay?”

“Mmhmm,” Felicity said, but he was already out. And Oliver didn’t snore, but his heavy breathing puffed warm air against her back. She spent her time stroking them, petting them, scratching her fingers through sweaty, messed up hair. Inside her, their knots slowly deflated. It took about an hour before Tommy slipped out of her, then Oliver. Felicity expected a rush of liquid between her legs and was surprised when there wasn’t anything but a bit of gel and her own slick. She left the men sleeping, curled towards each other, and went to the shower. The cool spray was refreshing like she was under a waterfall. And then she toweled dry, pulled on a t-shirt from Oliver and a pair of Tommy’s sweatpants, and curled up in a blanket at the end of the bed. She sipped from her water bottle and watched them sleep. 

Tommy woke first. He sat straight up, then relaxed when he saw her.

“You okay?” he asked. “That’s the first time you’ve cuddled up in a blanket in three days.”

“I think my heat’s over,” Felicity told him. “How long does a rut last?”

“Only as long as it needs to,” Tommy answered carefully. 

“As long as it needs to for what?” 

Tommy looked at her, unflinchingly. “To get you pregnant, Felicity.”

“Oh.” This truth robbed the air from her lungs for a second. And in that second of fear and want, Oliver woke up and reached for her.

“What—Felicity—what—”

“I’m okay,” she told him as her breasts filled with nectar for the first time in nearly a week. She saw Oliver’s eyes widen as her mounds swelled underneath the t-shirt. “Tommy just told me I’m probablycarryingyourpupsrightnow.”

“Okay,” Oliver said. 

Like that was no big deal.

“My mouth is watering,” Oliver added, looking at Tommy. “Is that..?”

“Omega nectar. You only get it from your mate. Tastes like heaven. Come here, Felicity.”

Felicity kept the blanket around her and knee-walked up the bed. Tommy settled her on her back and lifted her shirt. He stroked the plump mound, lifting it in his hand, drawing his thumb across the turgid tip. 

“This is probably to calm us down and tell us the rut is over.”

“Just one knot?” Oliver said. “Is that okay?”

“There’s no right or wrong. It’s our first synched dynamic. If we got lucky enough to be pregnant, great. If not, great. I’m sure next time Felicity’s heat comes on, we’ll hit rut right away. No one’s in a rush, here.”

Felicity was surprised that she wanted to argue with Tommy. No, she wasn’t in a rush to breed twins every time like her mother had, but with her mated Alphas? She wanted everything. _Everything._

“Come here, Oliver,” she invited him as Tommy bent his head and began to drink eagerly from her left breast. “You sort of have to get your tongue underneath and press up. Yeah, kinda like that.”

Felicity didn’t tell Oliver that feeding them nectar wasn’t particularly the most erotic experience for her—it was more pleasing, satisfying. Made her proud to give them comfort no one else could. But he’d missed the memo, and slipped his hand between her legs for one last, slow, wet orgasm. Her boys nearly choked on the surge of nectar that erupted from her Omega ducts when she came; Tommy licked up every drop but Oliver just smeared his face in it and kept sucking until every drop was gone.

“That’s a neat trick,” Tommy whispered across her torso as she pulled her shirt down and wrapped herself up in the blanket.

“I read about it once. Always wanted to try it if I ever got a mate someday,” Oliver answered.

“I can’t believe we got this lucky,” Tommy said.

“I can,” Oliver said after a few seconds. “Fate isn’t a cruel mistress, she’s just a bossy one.”

Tommy chuckled, some private joke between them. Felicity fell asleep to the low sound of their voices going back and forth over her, waves of peace. Fully content. Fully satisfied. Fully bonded, at last.


	12. Chapter 12

The new normal, Tommy told himself as he laced up his running shoes, involved a back-from-the-dead Oliver Queen, an Omega mate who might or might not have conceived during their whirlwind three days of heat/rut cycle, and a hair-raising new second shift job. Felicity agreed to guide their missions in Starling City through hacking traffic and security cameras while he and Oliver and Thea raced to beat the criminals at their game.

Honestly, he was surprised he even had time for a morning run. 

But Felicity needed a routine, and so he and Oliver had taken turns jogging with her every morning, going solo on the other days. This was his solo day. Thea had asked him if it was weird to leave Felicity and Oliver asleep together while he went out alone, but he told her the truth: he had peace, for the first time in his life. Felicity sprawled out when he left, her leg thrown over Oliver, who curled up into the tiniest spot on the bed as possible, folding his big bulk into the square footage of an army cot. Tommy hadn’t said anything about that. He was glad Oliver wasn’t sleeping on the floor. But Oliver’s hand rested on Felicity’s stomach and Tommy knew that the moment she stirred out of sleep, his friend would instantly wake and be aware of her every need. 

It was like Oliver was made for taking care of an Omega.

And wasn’t that the truth? Tommy turned left out of the parking lot and started a light jog down the hill to the pedestrian path. When they were teenagers, and thinking that Oliver would present as Omega, Tommy knew it wasn’t going to happen. Oliver was too bossy, too cocky, too charming and too confident. That Amanda Waller had kidnapped him and turned him into a killer was not something Tommy liked, but the truth was that Oliver’s five years away had given him the instincts of a solider, turning all his pre-dynamic traits into things that would best benefit Felicity. A different Omega might not need someone so high-intensity as Oliver protecting her. 

So, why did fate think Felicity Smoak needed protecting?

Tommy nodded to a pair of Betas who always came up the path in the opposite direction from him at the same time every other day. They always had smiles for him, and he for them. Obviously, they recognized him from the running circuit, but also from the headlines. His triple bond was exciting to the city, and the donation he’d made to the Alpha Council allowed them to increase the charity fund for dynamics in need. He had money and training and social capital. Oliver had brute strength, razor-sharp instincts and a new lease on life. How did that specific combination benefit Felicity? She was gainfully and happily employed, she had a close group of friends, and her health had improved rapidly off the Beta hormones. Her first heat was a success for bonding, and it was too soon to know about a pregnancy. 

What was he missing?

When he returned to the loft, Felicity was dressed for the day in a white top that tied at her neck with a silk red ribbon, and a pencil skirt. He thought it was a pretty demure outfit, until she lifted her coffee cup and he realized the blouse was slit from neck to just under her bra.

He laughed, drawing the attention of both his mates.

Oliver lifted his head from the tablet he was reading and huffed a little, telling Tommy he knew exactly what was so funny.

“It’s fashion, not convenient Alpha access,” Felicity said when Tommy snaked his hand inside her top and stroked the soft swell of her breast. “Stop that or I’ll be late for work.”

“Breakwater presentation,” Oliver told him. “She’s single-minded this morning.”

“Ah.” Tommy removed his hand, but took his time about it. “Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll drop you off at Palmer Tech.”

“Nope! Oliver’s going to drive me, and then he is going to spend the morning with Thea. No excuses.”

“She’s just…really gung ho about finding these metas,” Oliver said. It was almost a complaint. 

“It gives her something to do with you that isn’t ‘sit around the mansion and look at old photos and cry.’”

“I can’t believe you made me do that.”

“Sorrynotsorry,” Felicity said blithely. “Last night while you guys were out hunting that dude who’s selling alien steroids to unmated, unmatched Alphas, I tracked traces of ozone around the city that don’t fall into a pattern. I think I might have found evidence of your lightning meta.”

“Barry Allen?” Oliver got to his feet.

“He’s the fast one, right?” Tommy asked. He poured himself a coffee from the french press and smiled over the rim. His Omega loved fancy coffee. 

“So he might be hard to track. But he’s an Omega, so I’m hoping you and Thea will be a good combination to sense him. If he’s here in Starling City, Amanda has him doing something specific and terrible. Even if you could get Barry Allen to the Alpha Council for an hour or so, that might give them enough scent to put him into the national system and find his mate. Find his mate, disable the chip.”

“If we can catch him.”

“I have faith in you.” Felicity grabbed Oliver’s bicep to steady herself and kissed his cheek. Tommy ran upstairs to take a shower, knowing that chaste kiss was going to turn a little hotter. If he hurried, he’d be downstairs in time to see Oliver grinding Felicity against the wall. She needed an orgasm to calm her down about her presentation.

He timed it perfectly.

Oliver hadn’t undone any of Felicity’s clothing at all. He’d simply lifted her, pulled her panties aside, and fucked her against the wall, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist. Oliver watched her face, timing his release to match hers. Ever since the rut, Oliver had had much more control over every part of his biology, including and especially making Felicity scream his name.

Tommy folded his arms and leaned against the wall. He stayed quiet so he could hear the quiet, near-whispered praise Oliver gave Felicity, tender words of love as he wiped between her legs and smoothed her skirt back down. It was really, really sweet. And he could scent Felicity’s stress levels fall, her bond rise.

“I have time,” Felicity said, panting a little. She took a wobbly step toward Tommy. He smiled, shaking his head.

“You should go.”

“You got to watch. Oliver wants to watch, too, don’t you?” Felicity looked back at her mate, whose face remained impassive. “I have time,” she repeated. 

“Not going to argue, Felicity.” Tommy unzipped himself and didn’t even feel the cool air of the loft on his dick before it was engulfed in Felicity’s mouth. She sucked him eagerly, her ponytail swaying. Tommy let his head fall back against the brick wall. He felt Oliver’s eyes on him. “Shit. Don’t stop, Felicity.” It didn’t take him long—he could have lingered, could have made them all late, but instead he gave himself over to the incredible pleasure. Tommy released his load down his mate’s throat, his orgasm piling on the scent of Felicity’s recent orgasm to make the bond between them sing. She’d been right to insist he have a release, too. This was good. This was right. And the scent. He loved it. 

“See you tonight,” Oliver said, when Felicity was on her feet again. Her lip stain hadn’t even smudged. 

“Chinese?”

“No, I’m cooking. And there will be salad,” Oliver said to Felicity as they went out the door.

Tommy didn’t hear her exact words, but he knew she was bargaining for sweet dressing to go with it, none of Oliver’s healthy oil and vinegar concoctions. 

He worked through lunch, maximizing his time in the office. His whole staff had really stepped up to the plate, helping him do twice the work so he could get home every dinner for dinner with Felicity and Oliver. They’d reduced his on-site meetings and moved as much as possible to timed audio conversations. They could not, however, stop Malcolm Merlyn from dropping by.

He owned the company, after all.

“Get out.” Tommy barely looked up.

“You want to hear what I have to say about Felicity.”

Tommy slammed his hand down on the desk. “Only the fact that I would be imprisoned for killing you right now is stopping me. Only that.”

“Good. Fine. Whatever. Hear me out and I promise I will leave you alone.”

“You have five minutes.”

Malcolm Merlyn didn’t take the chair and beat around the bush like he usually did, trying to drive Tommy nuts. Instead, he went to the window and scanned the city. Tommy expected him to stall with some poetry about skyscrapers or a useless story about Tommy’s lonely childhood, but instead, Malcolm told his story to the glass like it was a confessional.

“Ra’s al Ghul was the one who ordered me to get Unidac’s weapons tech and eliminate the competition. When Felicity Smoak cyber-meddled, it got the attention of ARGUS. They forced my hand, Tommy, I swear it. I had to choose between my alliance to the League and my son’s mate. I chose wrong.”

“No fucking kidding.”

“Ra’s al Ghul did not get the weapons he needed, but he’s always set to diversify. Amanda Waller’s idea of training metahumans to do her bidding is very attractive to the League. But the League doesn’t have the manpower to run hundreds of different metas like ARGUS.”

“It’s telling that you don’t seem to give a shit that Waller is keeping slaves.”

“The League is more dangerous to _you_ ,” Malcolm said. “That’s all I care about.”

“Right.”

“It’s true, whether you believe it or not. I knew you wouldn’t let Felicity die in that building. I knew you would protect her.”

“From Deadshot? Whatever, Dad. Tell me what the League is doing, or get out.”

“Like I said, the League doesn’t have the resources ARGUS does, but it has more dedicated servants. Waller’s bunch will abandon ship as soon as they see a life raft. No one leaves the League of Assassins by choice.”

 _Except Bruce Wayne,_ Tommy thought, but didn’t say it.

“Ra’s wants to _create_ metas, not kidnap them. He has secured the dedication of a terrible criminal, one who has the ability to forcibly change the dynamic of a baby before its born _and_ force it to operate on a certain cerebral level. They create obedient soldiers, mostly. A hive mind. Ra’s is going to breed up an army dedicated to him alone.”

“That’s…disgusting, but it’s a really long endgame, isn’t it?”

Malcolm shook his head. “This person isn’t all human, Tommy. I don’t know if it’s a man or a woman or what their dynamic is. They’re just called the Midwife. And they’ve been working for decades. Ra’s already has a test group running Corto Maltese.”

“You mean running _in_ Corto Maltese, don’t you?”

“No. The entire country is under League control now. It’s going to be their new base of operations while he tries to control the whole Southern Hemisphere. More resources, more food and agriculture. More security for the future.”

“And this affects me because?”

“Because you’re my son and your mate has the ability to breed twins every time she’s in heat. The Midwife collects Omegas with that abnormality. Felicity’s mother was the same, though her Alphas just ran a black market adoption business and Donna Smoak died before the Midwife ever got to her. Ra’s has ordered me to take Felicity and turn her over to the Midwife as proof that I’m not switching my allegiance to ARGUS. As if I would ever take orders from Amanda Waller.”

“Wait, what?” Tommy stood up, his hands trembling.

“The Midwife is going to take Felicity and breed her with Alphas who are not you and Oliver, then supernaturally turn the fetuses into prime specimens for Ra’s al Ghul’s army of dynamic soldiers.”

“You told him no, right?” Tommy said hopefully. “You told him that you are finally choosing family over the League?”

“Of course I’m choosing family over the League,” Malcolm said, sounding offended. “But I’m not going to let this be my head on the chopping block.” From the inside of his jacket, he handed Tommy an envelope. “This is everything I have on the Midwife, including their base of operations, their movements across five major cities in the US, and all the information current to eleven fifty-two a.m.”

Tommy felt ice in his spine. “What happened at eleven fifty-two this morning?”

Malcolm faced him without fear. “I gave Felicity Smoak to the Midwife.”

###

Felicity always thought that getting kidnapped would mean being trapped in the cargo hold of a ship, or a cold warehouse somewhere. Instead, she’d been neatly whisked away during coffee hour after the Breakwater presentation (at least it was _after_ ) and no one even noticed. Not even Curtis. One minute she was helping herself to a bagel, the next minute a firm hand on her arm was directing her to the corner of the room. Then the air had unzipped, creating some kind of breach in space, and she’d been jerked through to another place. It didn’t seem like another dimension, just another place. Immediately, she’d been given a shapeless gray gown to put on (she didn’t, and they did it for her) and a warm cell to rest in. She didn’t rest on the neat cot with its neat blanket. She paced, and she screamed, and she searched the whole room for a way out other than the door with the lock and the guards. 

The next time the door opened, they branded her.

The pain was hot and blinding, and she almost passed out. Then it just ached. She had to take one arm out of the shapeless gown so nothing would brush against her raw flesh. She didn't need a mirror to see the design, because they'd shown it to her while they held her down. It was the brand she saw in her nightmares, the circle with the X through it, just like on the dead woman who’d washed up in Starling Bay. Is that what they would do to her once she was worn out from breeding too many pups too fast? Throw her useless body in the ocean? The brand was placed on her left shoulder blade. All Felicity could think was that it was the same position as the one ARGUS had forced on Oliver when he’d become Deadshot. They’d seared his flesh with a target in the same spot. Was the Midwife working for ARGUS? Felicity tried to think of the timeline. She knew her mother had been the victim of a breeding scheme, but it was a local, small-scale operation. Not like this. But then Malcolm had teased her with it the first time he’d met her, saying the Midwife liked to collect Omegas with uterus didelphys in advance, telling her that he already knew who her mother was and _what_ she was. Felicity assumed he’d been intrusively and illegally snooping into the medical charts of his son’s new mate, which would have tipped him off to her medical condition. But what if Malcolm hadn’t been scaring her, what if he’d been trying to warn her? Warn her that the Midwife was in town and ramping up for some kind of huge project, and that Felicity was going to be a target? Of course Malcolm would have heard of the Midwife. Felicity had heard of the person or persons one of the first times she’d gone on the dark web. A metahuman who could force traits in a fetus was a dangerous ally. It made sense that the League of Assassins would be involved, trying to beat ARGUS and other shadow organizations.

She should have told her mates.

_She should have told her mates._


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished these last two chapters and don't have the willpower to wait to post them. So here you go! All mysteries solved, I hope. Thanks for reading!!

“So, we have to infiltrate a heavily guarded secret underground complex staffed by who knows how many metahumans and find the cell where they’re keeping Felicity, free her, kill the Midwife, and get out before any alarms are tripped. Right? That’s it, right?” Oliver asked.

Tommy couldn’t speak. It was kind of a rhetorical question, first of all. And second, he just could not run the job like it was any other job. 

“Free everyone,” Thea answered. “We’re shutting the whole thing down. The only way to do it and keep Malcolm out of the hangman’s noose is if we put the truth on live TV while we’re doing the rescue.”

“Oh, right. Media. Okay.” The tall, thin Omega who stood next to Thea slipped his hand into hers and she squeezed it, but didn’t take her eyes off the schematics of the underground complex. Built into a secret space underneath the city, the bubble of a real functioning community had gone unnoticed by everyone for years. Tommy was sick just thinking about the hell the victims had suffered. And yet, there was hope—there was always hope. Like the man standing next to Thea. Oliver’s friend on the Suicide Squad, Barry Allen, had fell to his knees at Thea’s feet when they found him in the middle of an ARGUS op. And considering he’d been running fast enough to be a yellow blur, that said something about their bond.

“Oh, thank God,” Barry had said, slapping the back of his neck where the slave chip malfunctioned in Thea’s presence. “I’m free. Thank God. Hey, I’m Barry Allen, and I’m your Omega. I’m also a metahuman. Is, um, is that okay?”

Oliver told Tommy that Thea had cried out and jumped into the man’s arms and sunk her teeth into his neck immediately, and they’d been inseparable all day. That was in the column marked “win.” Everything else was a complete failure and disaster. 

“Felicity can broadcast the whole op but we need to get to her first. Oliver?” Thea looked at her brother.

“We don’t wait for Felicity to start the media blitz. Immediately start flooding news stations all over the country with the information Malcolm gave Tommy this morning. Alert the Alpha Council National Headquarters and the Dynamic Center for Equality. Let them start an evac. I’ll have better luck sniping the guards as they make their exit strategy, here, where they come up in the harbor.” Oliver pointed to a place on the map. “That says ‘marina’ but I think it’s an underground cave. I’ll disable every available escape method before they arrive, then take out the first wave of guards. The Squadron is going to have to pick up the slack.” He looked at Tommy.

“Detective Lance awaits the command of the Midnight Vigilante.”

“Good, okay, so we let them evac and swoop in during the chaos. How do we know they won’t take Felicity out a different way?”

“ARGUS,” Oliver said. “We tell Amanda Waller that there’s a chance for her to get her hands on some of the League’s alien-prototype soldiers and she’ll lock down the other exits.”

“We’re not really going to give her those poor Omegas, are we?” Barry asked nervously. “I’ve never had pups but I can’t imagine being forced to do it on command, knowing they’re going to be turned into drones.”

“Of course not. The media won’t let that happen. Hundreds of Alphas are going to show up. ARGUS is a secret organization, they won’t make a fuss.”

“They might get one or two,” Oliver reasoned, “but even if they do, we will add them to our list. The Rescue List.”

“Maybe some of the Alpha slaves she has on the Suicide Squad will find their Omegas among the victims, like you found Felicity,” Barry said to Oliver. “Like Thea found me.”

“It’s a good plan. Why are we trying to spare Malcolm again?” Tommy asked.

“We want it to look like Felicity found all that intel and Malcolm sold her out. If Ra’s thinks Malcolm is still loyal to the League first, he won’t come after you.” Thea was unfortunately full of logic.

“Okay. Suit up. I’ll get the media blitz started. Tommy, you’ll be with Thea and Barry at the infiltration. You scent her and you get her out.” Oliver was pulling on black kevlar and leathers as he spoke. Tommy nodded, clenching his fists. They wouldn’t get away with taking his mate. No one would get away with it. “Thea, you and Barry…Jesus, Thea, focus!”

“Oh, like you focused when you met your Omega?” Thea said between kissing Barry, who blushed and patted his Alpha’s shoulders, trying to get her to stop. 

“They have time, Oliver.”

“Ugh.” Oliver turned his back on his sister and her mate, who disappeared around the corner. “I can still hear them,” he said quietly to Tommy. “And she’s our _sister_.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Tommy and Oliver hitailed it out of the bunker and got into the armored car that Tommy kept in one of the hidden garages.

The waiting was excruciating. It took the press almost an hour to act on the leaked info, but when they did, it all fell on the Midwife’s operation at once. It was more than Tommy could have hoped for. The Alpha Council declared a lock down on the city’s transportation routes and declared a state of emergency. Everything shone a spotlight on the underground facility. Malcolm was nowhere to be found, and Oliver pulled Tommy in for a rare hug before he left to go be Deadshot on the evacuation. 

“Don’t be careful,” Oliver said in a low voice. “Go full Alpha. No restraint.”

Tommy hugged him back. “Oliver, will you be okay? Killing, after—”

Oliver shoved him back and pinned him with a glare. “I would slaughter every criminal in this city if it would help save Felicity.”

“Okay then. Aim small, miss small.”

“I never miss.”

Oliver left in the car, leaving Tommy to rendezvous with Barry and Thea. They arrived moments later, much calmer, but still holding hands. Barry could barely take his eyes off Tommy’s sister. It was kind of nice.

“You get started on the first ten?” Tommy teased her. Thea grinned.

“No, just a little practice.”

“First ten what?” Barry asked.

“Pups,” Thea said, squeezing him around his very thin middle. “I want at least ten.”

Tommy expected the Omega male to blanch and protest or freak out in some way, but he just raised his eyebrows and nodded. 

“I always wanted a large family,” Barry said. “My parents died when I was little and I was raised by a cop, Joe West. He had one daughter, Iris, and they’re both Betas. We used to sit around and dream up the biggest family possible for me. It was like a game, naming all the babies and giving them different careers and dynamics and stuff. I guess it was nature’s way of preparing me for you.”

“Dammit, Barry, that makes me like you.” Tommy grinned, but it faded fast when he got the signal from Oliver. “Oliver’s in position. He says the first round of evacuees are fleeing the facility. He’s disabled their trucks and so they’re fleeing by foot. He’s picking off the guards and the Squadron is rescuing the victims.”

“Is Felicity there?”

“Negative. No sign of the Midwife, either. We’re go for insertion.”

The three of them fought their way through the swarms of guards fleeing the underground facility from the front door. Tommy had been worried about the odds, but he was right to trust Oliver’s tactical abilities: Barry Allen moved so fast none of the soldiers saw him coming. They put down every single one in a flash and moved easily through the facility, encouraging the gray-robed victims to head up the ramp towards freedom. So many of the victims were gravid, their bellies stretching the limits of their shapeless robes. Male and female Omegas both hurried their way out of the underground prison.

“They said we were being moved to a different facility,” one of the victims said in confusion.

“Well, we turned it into a jailbreak. Get out and go to the nearest Squadron cop you see or anyone wearing an official Alpha shield. Go!”

While Thea ordered the victims to take their freedom into their own hands, Tommy smashed open a digital module and plugged in one of Felicity’s override switches. It was the equivalent of pulling the fire alarm, releasing all locked doors and opening all the hatches. Permanently. She’d invented it for emergencies. This qualified. 

“Do you scent her yet?” Thea called to Tommy over the sounds of the fray.

“No!” he shouted back. “Barry, clear me a path down the ramp!”

Barry was a whirlwind as he went deep into the bowels of the hellhole, disabling guards at a lightning fast pace and freeing prisoners, keeping a stream of them coming up the right side of the ramp and leaving the guards unconscious on the left. Tommy wondered what Amanda had forced him to do, but shut those thoughts down. Oliver and Barry could help each other come out of that hell, and their Omegas would be by their side the whole way.

Scared, nervous Omega pheromones filled Tommy’s senses as the prisoners escaped. It took all his concentration to ignore their fear and strive to reach the only Omega he cared about. _Felicity._

He finally scented her when they got to a huge, open space filled with individual cells. From above, it looked like a zoo. All the cell doors were open and guards were trying to restrain their prisoners. Tommy saw Felicity in a small group of Omegas, all wearing that same gray gown, near a sign that said “Medical.” His heart plummeted. What had they done to her? Had they already experimented on her? He grabbed Thea’s arm and she snagged Barry before he dashed away.

“She’s there,” Tommy said. He pointed across the cavernous space. “And that, I’m guessing, is the Midwife.”

“Jeez, that’s…wicked obvious. Right? I mean…” Barry held his hands up. 

The metahuman calling themselves the Midwife—it had to be—wore a long black cloak and stood two feet taller than everyone else in the room. Tommy couldn’t sense gender or dynamic, just evil. Just hunger, and greed, and fury.

“Our advantage is that the Midwife doesn’t know this raid is for Felicity. She’s just another acquisition. Thea, you and Barry make your way down to them but don’t engage without backup. I’m going to get Felicity to Oliver.”

“No, I’m going to get Felicity to Oliver,” Barry argued. “I can do it and be back before you and Thea even cross the room.”

“I can’t let anyone else touch her.”

“If you don’t stop the Midwife right now, Felicity is not going to be the last victim the Midwife takes.”

Barry’s argument was sound. Tommy sent all of the power he could through their bond until Felicity looked right at him. It was too far away to see her features, but he knew it was her down to his bones. 

“Got her scent? Her picture?” Thea asked. Barry nodded. “Then go. Run, Barry, and come back to me.”

Barry disappeared. Then Felicity was gone, and Tommy and Thea fought their way down the catwalk. The guards were surrendering now, for the most part, and as they reached the bottom of the steps Tommy was elated to see Alpha Council members helping the Omegas and Squadron cops starting to file in. A few black-suited soldiers looked like they weren’t on the Midwife’s payroll, and Tommy realized these were ARGUS agents, trying to be on the right side of the fight, to save their own asses.

“How long do you—” Tommy asked Thea but before he could even finish the sentence, Barry Allen was back, panting heavily.

“She’s out,” he breathed. 

“Affirmative,” came Oliver’s clipped voice over the comms. “Package acquired. Retreating position to bunker now.”

“I’m not a package,” Felicity argued. 

Tommy’s heart felt like it was going to explode with joy. 

“Okay, let’s take this bitch out.”

The Midwife didn’t have defensive magic, just a slave with the ability to teleport, but ARGUS had their own breacher, a young man with tight gloves on his hands and dark hair pulled back into a queue. Sunglasses shielded his eyes, but Tommy saw his brows raise when he saw Barry.

“Barry? We heard you…quit.”

Tommy could tell from the young man’s voice that “quit” meant more than giving a letter of resignation. No one “quit” Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad.

“This is my mate, Thea Queen,” Barry said cheerfully as he ran around the room, disabling guards. “We’re gonna have ten kids together!”

“Fantastic!” the young man replied, and shot a blast of energy into the Midwife’s chest. Immediately he collapsed on the ground, gripping the back of his head and grimacing in pain.

“Vibe, you were supposed to immobilize the target, not blast it to kingdom come!” an ARGUS agent shouted at him as he writhed on the floor as if he’d been tazed. 

“Subject in cardiac arrest, applying CPR—woah!” 

The ARGUS medics who’d swarmed to the Midwife’s side found themselves ripped away by Tommy Merlyn, the Midnight Vigilante, who was going to make sure that this horrible criminal breathed its last on the floor of its very own pit of hell and not under the microscope in an ARGUS lab. 

Thea drove the killing blow across the Midwife’s neck with a sword. Tommy was jealous for a split second, but it faded quickly to gratitude. 

“Imm-immolate it,” gasped Vibe, curled up in a ball. He jerked as another spasm of pain hit him.

“He should be dead for disobeying a direct order,” Barry said. “His mate must be here somewhere. See if you can get him out of here, Thea?”

And then Barry ran in a circle, very fast. So fast that the concrete floor underneath Tommy’s feet heated up and he felt it through his shoes. And finally, the young metahuman stopped running and hurled a bolt of lightning at the remains of the Midwife, turning it to ash.

The fire sprinklers turned on. And the lights went out.

“Follow my voice to the subterranean exit to your left,” Felicity’s voice sounded in Tommy’s ear, only a little shaky. “Thea, I turned the lights out so you can grab that meta, the one they called Vibe. Oliver says he’s a good guy. I hacked Amanda Waller’s technology and bypassed the command center in his chip. Vibe is no longer being controlled by ARGUS, but it’s not because he found a mate.”

“Got him,” Tommy responded. “Good work.”

“Barry, come on!” Thea called. Barry Allen quickly caught up to her, his arm around his fellow former-soldier. 

The lights came on, but only the emergency exit ones, and a loud alarm started to blare, indicating the facility would self-destruct in two minutes.

“I need three minutes to turn off that two-minute warning so haul ass!” Felicity yelled in Tommy’s ear. 

They did. 

The four of them rushed out into the sunset, not stopping until they were a mile away from the chaos that was right outside of the facility. 

“Went a little bit overboard with the media, maybe?” Thea said in a hoarse voice.

“Nah,” Tommy panted. He waved an aching arm at the complete circus that surrounded the no-longer-secret prison. “Evil always gets exposed to the light.”

“Don’t like that light pointed at metahumans,” Vibe said in a tense voice. He removed his glasses, revealing dark eyes and pale skin. There were shadows under his eyes. Barry hugged him and then introduced Thea again.

“I’m Cisco Ramon,” the young man said. “Anyone wanna explain why I’m not dead right now?”

“My mate is a genius computer hacker and overrode your chip. We’ll get it removed safely as soon as we can get you to the neurosurgeon who removed Oliver’s chip.”

“Can she do that for everyone?” Cisco asked, looking from Tommy to Barry.

“I don’t know,” Tommy said. “But we’ll find out. Come on.”

They took the armored car through streets that were filled with people mostly celebrating, some rioting, and drove it to Tommy’s headquarters in the Glades, which took a full hour because of traffic.

“I got you as many green lights as I could,” Felicity said, running towards him.

Tommy swept her up in his arms and pressed his nose into her neck, scenting her dynamic, grounding himself again. She winced in his arms just as Oliver gently moved his left arm off Felicity’s shoulder.

“They branded her,” Oliver said quietly. “Did you kill the Midwife?”

“Yes,” Tommy said. “Felicity, let me see.”

“I already covered it,” Oliver said, but Felicity shrugged down the sleeve of one of Tommy’s dress shirts and showed him the wound. 

“Felicity, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s my fault,” she argued. “I heard rumors about the Midwife. I knew they were in Starling City and I knew I was at risk because of my anomaly and I didn’t tell you.”

“Forget it,” Tommy said. “This was not your fault. This was my father, trying to save his ass and make it look like he still cares about me and my family.”

Felicity gasped. 

“How did you know?” she asked. “Can you smell them, too?”

“Smell what?” Oliver asked as Tommy frowned in confusion.

“Your family,” Felicity said, putting her hand over her stomach. “I would have rather found out I was pregnant in Anna Palmer’s lab with a cake for celebrating instead of some creepy underground meta breeding lab, but facts are facts. I’m having pups. Two of them. You’re going to be fathers.”

Tommy and Oliver hugged her from the front and behind, clinging to each other as much as to their Omega. Tommy couldn’t believe his luck. They were all dirty and covered in blood and soot and water and sweat, and exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. And Felicity was pregnant. 

Almost as soon as that fact made itself known to his brain, Tommy felt the change to his dynamic. There was a new facet to being an Alpha now. He had an Omega to love and protect, and two little ones on the way. It filled his bond near to bursting, and he couldn’t be happier. Or hornier.

“I should not be turned on right now,” Oliver muttered. Tommy laughed and let go of Felicity, but only far enough to grab her hand.

“Felicity, can we take you home? Do you need to go to the hospital first?”

“No, I’m fine. I texted Anna and she’ll check me over as soon as we’re done having celebratory ‘we didn’t die’ sex. And ‘we’re going to be parents’ sex. And maybe just some regular sex for fun.”

“Ohhhgod,” Barry Allen ejected into the sound of Tommy and Oliver’s laughter. The fast meta doubled over, clutching his stomach. “The hell?”

“Sympathetic nervous system reaction,” Felicity called out. “Close proximity to another Omega who’s having babies is affecting your heat cycles. Also, you just bonded with your mate and then had a huge adrenaline rush, so you’re probably going to be busy for while. Thanks again for saving me, by the way.”

Barry replied in only syllables as Thea took his hand and firmly led him out of the bunker, waving goodbye with her free hand.

“Can I just…stay here?” Cisco asked. “I see a computer and a minifridge and a cot. And some really state of the art security.”

“Of course,” Tommy said. “But only until we can get you a real apartment on the outside, after your chip is out. Welcome to the family, Cisco.”

“What family is that?” Cisco asked, but he shook Tommy’s hand anyway.

“I guess it’s family Midnight,” Felicity said. She put one arm around Oliver’s waist and linked her arm with Tommy. “Because we operate in the dark. On behalf of the light.”

“Midnight. I like it. It’s a good name.” Cisco saluted them and walked off in the direction of the mini fridge.

“Take me home,” Felicity said. “Please, Alphas, take me home now.”

“Our pleasure,” Tommy and Oliver said in unison.

And they did. 

And they lived happily ever after.


End file.
